Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

There were only three of them left. Everyone else had either died or betrayed them to save their own skin. There were over a dozen murderous statues approaching from all sides that would begin moving as soon as you looked away. That was bad enough, but with the most recent betrayal they didn’t have enough hunters left to cover all angles anymore.

He needed to figure out a solution to this, both Joohee and Chi-Yul were counting on him to figure it out like he had the last two trials. He tried to think it through as quickly as he could, doing an inventory of what they had.

Song Chi-Yul had fire magic and a D rank magic sword. He was also missing an arm, but he’d cauterized his own wound so at least he wouldn’t bleed out. Joohee had B rank healing magic, but she’d used the last of her mana healing his leg as much as she could. It left him with a stump for a right leg below the knee, but she’d saved his life. The bigger issue was that she’d basically gone catatonic and someone who was dissociating couldn’t look at statues.

He thought about it for a few more seconds before coming to the only conclusion. He briefly looked over at Chi-Yul between their frantic glances at the different statues. He gulped, trying to stay as confident sounding as possible.

“You need to take her and go.”

The stoic swordsman shook his head sharply. “Absolutely not. I’m the leader and I got us into this, I’ll stay behind.”

“Please, Chi-Yul. We need to be realistic, there’s no way I survive this. Someone has to stay behind to keep the doors open and since I can’t walk I’d need someone to carry me. So unless Joohee suddenly snaps out of it or you plan on leaving her to die then it has to be me.”

After a long pause, the man came to accept that there wasn’t another option and responded solemnly. “Okay. I’m sorry, Jin-Woo. For everything.” He then pulled out his sword and handed it to Jin-Woo. “You’ll need this more than I will. Thank you, we owe you our lives and I’m sorry I won’t be able to repay that debt.”

As Chi-Yul picked up their healer and draped her over his shoulder, Jin-Woo realized there was one more thing he needed to say.

“If you really mean that, then there’s something you can do for me. My sister, Sung Jinnah. Please take care of her. I’m the only family she had left…” There was more he wanted to say, but the statues were getting closer and he couldn’t risk Chi-Yul missing the window to escape.

“Of course. I’ll do everything I can, she won’t face this alone.”

He gave a weak smile as he watched them leave the accursed double dungeon. That was all he could really ask for. Chi-Yul was a good man, between that and the Hunter Association’s life insurance, she would be okay. Or at least, as okay as she could be.

Sung threw his body to the side, narrowly avoiding a ball and chain that crushed the stone beneath it. He crawled up onto the top of the altar to get a better vantage point and see as many of them as possible. The one closest to him was a massive knight barely five feet away. It stood with a broad sword held in both hands, raised above his head and ready to cut him down.

He saw movement in the corner of his eye, quickly turning to stop the approach of a mace wielder that was still coated in the blood of his fellow hunters. When he turned back the knight was now standing directly over him, the razor sharp looking sword barely a foot away. If he turned his head one more time, he’d be cut in half, but if he didn’t turn then the statues behind him would crush him in the next few seconds.

He held his eyes on the sword for as long as he could but the sound of something very large swishing through the air made him look towards the mace hurtling towards his body, saving him from being crushed. He knew the cost he’d pay for that though. He held up Chi-Yul’s sword, deflecting the attack slightly, making it avoid his heart, letting out a scream of agony as the dull stone blade tore through his arm instead.

Jin-Woo’s vision began to darken, probably from a mix of extreme pain and blood loss. He’d done all he could and fought until he didn’t have any fight left in him. He let his eyes close and accepted that this was the end, he’d given everything he had, it just hadn’t been enough. And as that thought crossed his mind, the final flame went out as he fell into unconsciousness.

Sung Jin-Woo opened his eyes to a bright white light, and his first thought was that he’d entered the afterlife. After a few disorienting seconds he recognized the room as one in Seoul’s hunter specific hospital, a place he’d grown quite familiar with over the years. With that important realization he came to a very relevant question.

“How am I still alive?”

His voice was a raspy whisper in the silent room. After barely a minute of laying there and contemplating his survival, a nurse doing her rounds came in. She looked at him with a kind smile and said something into a walkie-talkie, probably letting people know he was conscious.

“It’s good to see you awake. There was a change in your vitals so I was sent to check up on you. You’ve been out for a few days now but have been recovering well, from what we can see.” She grabbed a paper cup and began filling it with water. “I don’t know much about your case beyond that, but I’ll have your doctor come by soon and your family will be notified, I’m sure they’re looking forward to seeing you.”

He instinctively reached out and accepted the water before looking down in shock and confusion at his right arm.

“How…?”

The kind nurse tilted her head slightly “Hm? How what?”

“I… My arm was cut off, but it’s back.” He moved his arm around a bit in testing sort of way, finding no issues with range of movement or any pain.

His attention was pulled by a new person entering the room. It was an older man who seemed to be a doctor and was looking over some papers on a clipboard.

“Thank you Ms Yi, I’ll take it from here.” The friendly nurse nodded to him and quickly left the room, deferring to the newcomer. He was surprised at how fast a doctor had arrived, usually it took hours if not most the day. Beyond that, he’d never seen the man before, which was odd since he’d met pretty much everyone in the hospital with how often he got hurt.

The man looked up from his clipboard and addressed him. “It’s good to meet you, Mr Sung, I’m Dr Choi and have been monitoring you while you were unconscious the last three and a half days, and will continue working with you for your recovery. To answer your question, an A rank healer had been part of the rescue team sent into the dungeon and regrew your arm when you were found.”

He supposed that made sense, any team strong enough to defeat those statues had to be at least rank A or S and would have healers with them. He didn’t have the money to cover something like A rank healing and hoped he wouldn’t get charged since it sounded like it was just some random hunter being kind. He paused as a thought crossed his mind.

“If I was healed by someone that strong, why does my leg still hurt? Shouldn’t it have been healed with everything else?”

The doctor hummed in thought. “Where specifically does it hurt?”

“I guess the area below the knee, it aches pretty badly.” Jin-Woo sat up a bit more so he could reach down and point for emphasis. He’d been a bit out of it with the whirlwind of activity after just waking up and the pieces hadn’t quite clicked together until he only saw the outline of one leg under the hospital sheets. “Oh.”

“Unfortunately we were only able to regrow your arm. Because your leg had already been healed, there was little to be done.”

He’d been a hunter long enough to know the risks of being healed poorly or not soon enough. Once a wound had healed, either naturally or magically, it couldn’t be re-healed. It was the reason you frequently saw S-rank hunters with scars even though they had healers on hand. The rapid healing of higher ranks meant there was a real risk of things healing badly before a healer got there.

The doctor had paused to give him time to think for a moment before continuing. “However, it was still for the best that the wound had been closed when it was, you likely wouldn’t have survived without that impromptu procedure.”

He nodded numbly, unsure on how to respond to finding out that he’d lost a limb when he hadn’t been expecting to survive at all, let alone with both his arms. While the news settled in he saw Dr Choi speak into his own walkie-talkie.

“We have a visitor here for you, if you feel up to it. Your sister, Sung Jinnah, has been visiting you every day and I’m sure she’ll be glad to see her brother awake again. As long as you’re fine with it, I have no problem having her in the room while I check your vitals and make sure everything is within the desired ranges.”

He quickly agreed, happy to see his little sister again after that nightmare of a dungeon.

Within a couple minutes the door was thrown open with a very stressed looking Jinnah power walking through it (just slow enough that she wouldn’t get yelled at again for running in the hospital). She came right up to him and stared him in the eye with no small amount of suspicion.

“What’s my favorite animal?”

“Huh? What are you going on about now? If this is for some online quiz then you really need to time things better, I just woke up from a minor coma.”

“Answer the question.”

He groaned internally but did his best to take her seriously since she looked genuinely concerned. “It seems to change every few weeks, but right now it’s rabbits. Because they’re tiny, cute, hop around, and you think it’s hilarious that they eat their own poop since you have the humor of an eight year old boy. Is that enough?”

She breathed out hard, and the suspicion seemed to flow out of her until it was replaced by the fear it had been holding back. She threw herself into the arms, the doctor grumbling and repositioning himself as he took Jin-Woo’s blood pressure.

“It’s actually you. The doctor and hunter people kept saying it was the real you, but I needed to make sure.”

“My sweet darling baby sister, what the hell are you talking about?” In a strange way, his little sister freaking out and being irrational made it easier to push down his own fears and panic about everything going on.

“That’s not your face. Well, it’s kind of similar, but it’s definitely not what you look like.”

His hands quickly moved to his face, trying to feel whatever was so different, before being cut off by the doctor.

“A representative from the KHA will come by tomorrow to explain in further detail, but we believe that you had a reawakening. Reawakening is known to change the physical appearance to a degree, the same way awakening does. The body tends to go through a collection of minor changes at higher ranks as a way to protect itself from harm. We don’t know the full mechanics of it, but it’s not as uncommon as you’d believe. It’s why you’re unlikely to find an out of shape high rank hunter, even if they don’t do any training or fighting.”

Well, that was certainly something to unpack later. “Can I have a mirror or something?”

Dr Choi nodded and grabbed one nearby, clearly anticipating that the request would come up.

Jinnah cut in briefly. “Um, try not to freak out, okay? I needed a little bit to deal with it too.”

“Wow, that’s reassuring, your bedside manner is amazing as always. What, do I have demon horns or somethi- oh.” Staring back at him in the handheld mirror was their father. He’d always had a bit of his dad’s looks, but this was nearly identical to how their dad had looked when they’d lost him almost seven years ago. Somehow, he wasn’t sure if looking like his dead father was better or worse than growing horns.

Chapter Text

After the doctor left, having confirmed his vitals were all where they should be, he was free to spend the rest of the day with his sister. He looked over to see her staring out the window, her forehead scrunched up in deep thought.

“Everything good over there?”

“Sort of. Like, nothing’s wrong and it’s pissing me off.”

He nodded slowly. “Want to loop me on what that means?”

“It’s just, ugh, I don’t know, it’s lots of little things!” She threw her hands up in frustration. “Like, look at this view!” She gestured towards the gorgeous skyline they could see from the window. “And the food is genuinely delicious instead of barely edible. Not to mention the fact that all the nurses and doctors are ready to be helpful at a moment's notice. The last time you were here you were in some windowless back corner of the second floor and it took days for a doctor to even acknowledge you.”

“Isn’t it good though? That things are getting better for us?”

“I guess. But they’re only doing it because they think something special happened to you. I just wish you’d been getting treatment like this the whole time, instead of them waiting until you’re hurt in an interesting way.”

He really wanted to counter her, but he could admit that there was a big difference between how he was normally treated and what he’d gotten after potentially reawakening. Whether or not he was actually stronger hadn’t been confirmed yet, but the assumption was enough to have him considered a much higher priority.

“I don’t really like it either, but there’s not much we can do about it.”

She gave an annoyed ‘hmph’ and turned back to the window. “Hopefully this is the last time we come here anyways, since you’ll be finding a different job after this.”

He sighed. “Probably, yeah.” Even if he got something crazy like A or B rank when the HA came by, he doubted he’d be able to raid dungeons missing a leg, at best he’d still be struggling through the weakest gates. But what else would he be able to do? Just about every other industry had tanked from the gates showing up and unleashing chaos upon society pretty regularly. Technically, the construction industry was also booming, but he wouldn’t exactly be fit for that either without being able to walk.

He didn’t want to worry his little sister about money though. The insurance from the HA after being disabled in the dungeon should be enough to get by for at least a few months, but things would get very tight very fast money wise. There wasn’t much he could do about it in the moment though, so he tried not to overthink it too hard.

They spent the rest of the day chatting back and forth, asking her about her classes and her friends. She wasn’t as talkative as usual, but he couldn’t blame her for that. He knew that all of this had been hard on her, especially him being unconscious for days at a time. It wasn’t hard to guess that his own mini-coma made her think of their mother, who’d been asleep for four years now.

Eventually she had to go back to their apartment. Visiting hours technically hadn’t ended yet, but there wasn’t a point in having her just stand around as he did paperwork and talked to nurses about getting discharged since he was already healed magically. He didn’t like the idea of her being alone so often, but he was limited on options and couldn’t do much other than try and stay out of the hospital in the future. 

It wasn’t too much longer before a nurse came and told him he had two more visitors. Rather than family, this time it was two men in crisp suits, one holding an ornate looking box.

“My name is Woo Jin-Chul, this is my associate Jung Min, we’re from the KHA’s Surveillance Division. We’re here to take your statement on the double dungeon and to determine if you had a reawakening and if so what your rank is.”

That made sense, he supposed, for the surveillance department to get information, though the man in front seemed weirdly strong for a paper pusher. “Right to business then I guess, my name’s Sung Jin-Woo, but I’m guessing you already knew that. What specifically are you looking to know?”

“We’ve already heard the events that occurred from the other hunters, primarily Song Chi-Yul, who was in the dungeon longest, excluding you. What we’re looking to understand better is what happened between Chi-Yul leaving and the suppression team finding you.”

He pondered it for a second before responding. “Sure, but I can’t imagine it’s much information. It was likely only a few minutes before they showed up.”

This seemed to get the bureaucrat's attention. “Oh, what makes you say that?”

He scratched the back of his head awkwardly, that response made it sound like he had been wrong. “Well, it hadn’t been too long after everyone else had gone that I was basically dead. I was down an arm and a leg with giant statues trying to kill me when I passed out. I’m assuming they got there just in time to save me.”

The man stared him down for a few seconds before relaxing, as if deciding whether or not he was telling the truth. “I see, that certainly adds a level of mystery to this entire endeavor. You were found over half an hour after Song Chi-Yul left the dungeon. Additionally, when they arrived, the statues were no longer there, just you and the other fallen hunters.”

“But… That doesn’t make any sense.”

“True, but it’s far from the first time something in the dungeon doesn’t make sense. Perhaps we’ll find out what happened to the statues, but it will likely remain unknown. I would recommend focusing on the fact you survived rather than worrying about the how.”

“Thanks, I’ll keep that in mind. Did you have any other questions?”

“Not at the moment. Though we will reach out if there is any update on the situation.” He gave a subtle wave to the second Hunter who stepped forward with the fancy looking box, continuing to stand quietly. The box was opened, revealing a large crystal, pitch black and emanating a low level of mana. Well, it was large in terms of it being a stone someone had to carry around, but tiny compared to a standard mana reader, which could take up an entire room and required multiple people to run it.

Jin-Woo placed his hand on the device and held it there until signaled to take it back.

It took a little under a minute for the machine to process the result, the wait going by agonizingly slowly as he desperately hoped for something strong enough so he could still support his sister and keep their mother alive. 

The machine finally dinged, revealing the result to the man who had been carrying it around. He swore under his breath, causing Woo Jin-Chul to lean over and read it himself.

“I suppose congratulations are in order. It would appear that you’re the 10th S ranked hunter in South Korea.”

He stared up at the man in pure shock. Surely he misheard him.There were only about a thousand of them in the world, and he certainly didn’t feel like he fit the description. “I’m sorry, did you just say S rank?”.

“Correct, it’s certainly unlikely, but that is how it seems to stand at the moment. We’ll want to have it double checked at the KHA once you’re available, the machine there is more precise and has an even smaller chance of giving an error. It will also give us an opportunity to determine what your abilities are.”

Woo Jin-Chul reached into his pocket and pulled out a business card that he left on the side table. “Please reach out once you would like to come by the Association building. Now, unless you have any questions, we’ll take our leave.” 

After that absolute whirlwind of life altering information, he couldn’t really offer much more than nodding dumbly, but that seemed to do the trick.

A couple hours later found him leaving in a wheelchair and being driven home in a modified van designed for just that purpose. He was still completely baffled by this turn of events and how it would change his life.

Nowadays, S ranks were some of the most influential people in the world. Not only were they incredibly powerful but even the retired hunters tended to be in leadership roles, the biggest example was Gunhee, who led the KHA. The downside was that even retired and injured S-rank hunters were expected to help in a crisis in some way or another.

As the van pulled up to his apartment complex he wondered what the future would look like. If he gained physical strength then he’d be limited in his options and potentially relegated to some desk job in the KHA, which wouldn’t be the worst case. However, if he gained some sort of mage power then he’d be both able and expected to keep fighting in the dungeons, which he had mixed feelings on after the disaster he’d just barely survived. If nothing else, fighting paid far better than just about anything else regardless of your rank.

He waved goodbye to the people who’d driven him home after getting their card in case he needed to be driven back to the hospital for any checkups. He hadn’t even been thinking about not being able to use most cars now without it being a hassle.

He groaned, not wanting to think about any of that nonsense anymore and wheeled himself up to the front door, getting through the door after a couple of attempts. He instinctively moved over to the steps before realizing why that obviously wouldn’t work. He looked around, feeling more than a bit embarrassed at not remembering where the elevator was. He’d lived there most of his life but since they were just on the second floor it hadn’t really come up.

After an amount of time he’d rather not admit, he finally got to their apartment, having bumped into every wall and nearly falling over after trying to turn too quickly.

He heard his sister call over to him as he rolled inside, nearly going face first as he tried to hold a door open while wheeling through it for the first time.

“Hey, you doing alright over there?”

“Yep. Everything is fine, just exhausted and doing my best to adjust. They’ll have me in a prosthetic eventually, but that takes time, so it’s just wheels for now.”

Jinnah stood in the hallway with him, swaying a bit awkwardly. “Sooooo, how’d things go with the hunter people?”

After a brief explanation, the neighbors were all notified of of her surprise at the update when they heard a loud ‘what the fuck??’ echo through the building. 

Chapter Text

A few days passed before Jin-Woo even pulled out the business card he was given. It was only then that he realized the man he’d been talking to was actually the director of the entire surveillance division. His first reaction had been confusion over why someone that important would personally visit him at the hospital. The second was remembering that he was now one of those important people that dealt with directors of departments instead of the low level workers. It was still a strange whiplash to very suddenly have people care a lot about his opinions and feelings, but figured that he’d just have to get used to it.

After a brief call letting them know he was ready to come to HQ he wheeled around the house getting ready to go. Jinnah called over to him from across the apartment, regardless of being frequently asked to not shout and instead just walk over to him.

“Want me to wheel you down? I want to meet the government man.”

“You can come down with me, but I’ll move myself.” He felt it was implied that it was embarrassing to have his little sister push his chair instead of doing it himself.

They went down to the apartment complex’s parking lot but didn’t have to wait outside for long before a very nice black car pulled up. As the driver stepped out Jinnah leaned over to whisper poorly to him.

“Is that mister government?”

He sighed slightly, not trying to lower his voice and play along with her current nonsense as he walked over to them. “Yes, this is the director of the Surveillance Division, Woo Jin-Chul. It’s good to see you again, sir,  this is my sister Jinnah.”

“It’s good to meet you, miss. Will you be joining us today?”

Jinnah gave a hopeful look, clearly interested in joining in with whatever was going on, which he met with an unimpressed stare. “Have you finished getting caught up on your schoolwork?”

“Well… that depends on how you define ‘finished’.”

“That’s what I thought. I know things are hectic but school is important and needs to take priority sometimes.” After some expected grumbling she went back up to their apartment to (theoretically) get her work done.

It took some finagling to get him in the car and the wheelchair collapsed and in the trunk, but they were on the road soon enough and on their way to headquarters.

“I know you did the initial mana reading with me, but I wasn’t expecting you to be the driver as well. Not to be rude, but it seems a bit menial of a task for a director.”

“The hunter’s association wishes to be as accommodating as possible. We understand that it is a difficult time for you and wish to ease that wherever possible. Besides, I typically work with our S ranks, so I’ll be your most frequent point of contact.”

He wondered if the man had that role for safety reasons. Jin-Woo could tell he was strong, probably the most powerful person he’d ever met. Maybe most of the other bureaucrats would be in danger, or at least afraid of something going wrong, when dealing with people who had a certain magnitude of strength.

It wasn’t long until they were there and Jin-Woo found himself in front of the large mana reader once more so that they could verify the results from the portable version. Both in that moment and years prior, he already knew what the machine would say, it was merely a formality. While nerve wracking in both circumstances, he supposed he would take the unsettling experience of a machine telling you you’re now one of the most important people in the country over that same machine telling him he’d struggle to provide for his family.

As the giant mana stone finished its reading, he felt a powerful presence approach him from behind. With a glance over his shoulder he saw the chairman of the entire KHA, Go Gunhee, an old man who had the posture and scars of a warrior but a gentle smile. The retired hunter was a fascinating mix, having a simultaneously kind and imposing air about him.

They gave each other the standard greetings and small talk until the woman working the mana reader came over.

“Um. I don’t mean to interrupt, but the results came back and we can confirm that he is well within S rank.”

Gunhee clapped him on the shoulder. “It’s good to have you in our ranks. Do you have an idea of what your abilities are? It’s helpful to do an assessment either way to help understand the full breadth of what you can do.”

“Honestly, I haven’t the slightest idea. But I haven’t really tried to test it either, the last thing I wanted was to discover fire powers or something while I was in the hospital or my apartment.”

The older hunter gave a deep laugh. “A wise decision. We can try a few things to at least point you in the right direction.”

Jin-Chul stepped forward from where he’d been patiently waiting. “I can take you over to our training facility, it has the tools needed to accurately measure the physical strength of high ranking hunters without breaking.”

Gunhee held up a hand, giving Jin-Chul pause for a moment, before reaching behind a desk and pulling out a grip strength test. “Give this a try to start out. I’ve got a hunch.”

It didn’t look like anything that was special or would stand up to his new theoretical strength. “Uh, sure?” He took a hold of it and squeezed as hard as he could, the number lighting up at a bit over a ton. He stared at the number in awe, as of a few days ago he was barely stronger than the average person.

“Yep, that’s what I thought. Your strength is on the higher end of C rank combat hunters, maybe the low end of B. Which means your magic has to be something real impressive for your mana to still be beyond what we can measure.”

 He felt a weight lift from his chest that he didn’t realize he was holding. Losing his leg only to find out he could have been one of the strongest combat hunters would have brought ‘insult to injury’ to a new level.

For the next several hours they stood outside and tried to figure out what his magic was. They were certain it was powerful, but he had no idea what it was or how to activate it. They had him try and interact with all kinds of things, from shooting a bow to holding different magical books, but nothing really did anything.

Eventually he grew tired of this and just wanted to go home. Besides, he doubted they had anything else for him to try since they’d tried to bring forth just about every known type of magic.

The other reason he wanted to go home was that his leg hurt like crazy. Which wouldn’t have been such an issue if it was the leg he still had. It felt like a mocking sort of reminder of what he had lost and didn’t have anymore. He was technically healed, but that didn’t stop phantom pain apparently, and there wasn’t much he could do about it.

When he was brought back to his home, he just laid on the couch staring at the ceiling. An activity he had been doing a lot lately. The entire day had just been exhausting. He knew there were other things he could be doing but decided he’d done enough for the day and let himself continue relaxing on the couch. He didn’t realize he had fallen asleep until he woke up to the sound of Jinah in the kitchen.

Jinah looked up at him from their dinner table with a stained smile that had been permanently on her face since his injury. “Hey, look who finally decided to join the land of the living. I just finished making dinner, and by that I mean I microwaved some leftovers.”

“Sorry about that, I was just tired after all the HA stuff.”

“Yeah. I take it the evaluation didn’t go so well? It’s all over social media that you couldn’t do any fancy magic stuff.”

“Wait, they actually reported on me?”

“Well, yeah. Being the tenth S rank in Korea is a pretty big deal. But… most of the news is pretty negative so far.”

“Oh? I know S ranks get a lot of attention, but I haven’t even done anything yet for people to be mad about.” He opened his phone and very easily found what she was talking about.

“Sung Jin-Woo, the weakest S rank hunter” “10th S rank is a cripple unable to access his magic” “An S rank in title alone”

Someone at the KHA must have said something, because the news had gotten hold of that information ridiculously fast. Hopefully he’d figure out what his powers were soon enough to turn things around. At the end of the day though, didn’t care what he could do, as long as he was strong enough to protect his family. He was tired of being weak and helpless in the face of everything that kept happening.

Days passed and he wasn’t getting any closer to some sort of magical revelation, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t making progress at all. It was far less exciting and fantastical, but he supposed it was just as, if not more important, than learning his new abilities. That said, it didn’t stop him from glaring in frustration at the building where he got physical therapy.

He wheeled his way inside, briefly stopping by the receptionist who recognized him and waved him through. There weren’t many people in the waiting room since it was a facility specifically for wounded hunters rather than the general public. He saw a few others with limps and one woman missing a leg, though higher up the leg than his, all of them bearing the cost of fighting those damn monsters.

After sitting there for a few minutes he was brought into the back by an older woman who made small talk while checking his range of motion and pain levels.

“Alright, Mr.Jin-Woo, we have your new prosthetic, so you won’t need to use the practice one anymore. That said, this probably won’t be the final product, it’s not uncommon to need adjustments of some sort to have it be just right.”

He looked over the white and gray leg, mostly made of plastic with a metal base where the bone would be. He supposed what she said explained why it looked sort of cheap, there wasn’t much reason to spend time and resources to make a leg that would be replaced soon after.

“We’re starting you out with something consistent with the weight of a normal leg. The downside is it won’t be a good fit for combat or any use of superstrength, but it will be much easier to get used to than starting with something heavier than your other leg.”

He nodded, supposing that made sense. “How long will it take to have one that I can fight with?”

“Well, there’s two sides to that. Just on the production side of things, I don’t know of anyone that produces S rank prosthetics in Korea, so you’d likely have to settle for B rank, and even that will likely take between a few weeks and a few months. The other side is that you shouldn’t try to run before you can walk, and you certainly shouldn’t try to fight monsters before you can do either.”

She put on his new prosthetic and had him practice standing while using bars to help keep his balance, only taking another step every couple minutes. By the time half an hour had gone by he had sweat running down his forehead and had traveled a humiliating fifteen feet. He felt like a child everytime he stumbled, and a particularly clumsy child at that.

But he couldn’t let it get to him. He’d been given another chance at life, surviving where he should have died, and he refused to give up before he got back onto his feet, both metaphorically and especially literally.

Chapter Text

It had been a little under two weeks since he had gotten evaluated and his life began to settle enough that he could actually catch a breath. With things starting to calm down at least a little he found himself reaching out to a friend. Well, he at least thought they were friends, he could admit it was a weird situation. They’d fought together on occasion for years, but never really spent time together.

Jin-Woo found a nice spot in the shade to park his wheelchair. It wasn’t the closest park from his apartment, but it was the closest one that didn’t have statues in it. He had a hard time taking his eyes off them in case they started moving, which wasn’t exactly good for his mental health. So instead he was at a decent sized park he had needed to take the subway to reach. Since it was the middle of the day it was mostly being used by parents with children too young to be in school.

A mom was walking past with her son, who looked to be about three, she pulled her son a little bit closer to herself but the kid had a different idea. Tugging at her hand and pointing directly at Jin-Woo the young boy loudly announced his question.

“Mommy! That man has a robot leg! Mister, are you a robot?”

The mother immediately grew flustered with embarrassment at the blunt question. But under the layer of embarrassment was a flicker of fear. “I’m so sorry for that, he didn’t mean anything by it.”

Before he could tell her it was fine, he truly didn’t care, she had already pulled her son away and was walking away very quickly, glancing back at him a couple times. His confusion was resolved when his now enhanced senses heard her whispering to her son.

“Shin, you can’t just go up to people like that, especially homeless men with swords. Remember what I told you about stranger danger?”

He’d forgotten about the sword he’d brought with him to return to Chi-Yul, which explained a lot more about how the mother reacted. Still, her assumption that he was homeless felt rude. Sure, he hadn’t showered or shaved in about a week and he was wearing an old hoodie, but still. Granted, he’d rather she think he was some random homeless guy than recognize him as a newly famous person.

He relaxed in the shade for a few more minutes before Song Chi-Yul walked up to him with a tired smile.

“It’s good to see you Jin-Woo. I hope you weren’t waiting for me too long?”

“No, I just got here. I’m still getting used to how long it takes me to get everywhere. There’s just a lot of extra steps added to even the smallest things.”

Chi-Yul sat at the bench next to his wheelchair and sighed. “Yeah, I think there’s a lot we’re both getting used to. I’ve already broken a few dishes because I’ll go to grab something with a hand that isn’t there anymore.” He looked down to see his legs, surprised that there were two. “I see you’ve got a prosthetic already?”

He lifted his pant leg up to show the full artificial limb. “Yeah, I guess they made it as quick as possible since I’m an S class bigshot now. I can’t really stand on my own for more than a few minutes though, so I’m still wheelchair bound for now.”

The swordsman looked into the distance and gave a sad sigh. “I can never thank you enough. It’s only because of you that any of us got out alive. I would be dead a dozen times over if you hadn’t been there for us, if you hadn’t sacrificed yourself.”

He honestly didn’t know how to respond to that, so he swiftly changed the subject. “That reminds me. I have something of yours, I’d forgotten all about it until the hospital gave it back to me along with everything I had on me during the raid.”

He reached behind himself and grabbed the sword that was strapped to the back of his wheelchair.

Chil-Yul took a deep breath as he held the weapon. “I certainly wasn’t expecting to see this again.”

“That sword let me turn a deadly attack into a wounding one, not sure I would have made it without those few extra seconds.”

“Thank you, but I want you to keep it. I have spares, and that one isn’t weighted well for fighting one handed. Besides, it’s rude to return a gift.”

Jin-Woo put the sword back into its scabbard, pausing as he noticed the man’s look of concentration. “Something you want to talk about?”

“It’s nothing bad, just a strange thing to bring up.” He took a deep breath in thought before speaking. “I wanted to offer to be your sister’s godfather. I understand that it was something you asked for in a moment of desperation, but I am a man of my word and have no issue with it being legally binding.”

He could admit that he was more than a little taken aback. He hadn’t even considered that Chi-Yul would still stand by that even though Jin-Woo survived. “Are you sure? We barely know each other and you’ve never even met her.”

“How about you bring her with you next time? If she’s anything like you I’m sure she’s a good kid. I don’t need an answer right now or anything like that, I just want you to know that the offer is there.”

He nodded slowly in response. “Yeah, I’ll think it over and run it by Jinnah, see how she feels about it.” It felt like such a huge jump, but at the same time, he’d want someone there for Jinnah if he ended up in another deadly situation.

Their conversation drifted into less serious territory, chatting about the weather and complaining how frustrating public transit became once you were missing a limb.

Jin Woo looked over at him, “There was something I wanted to run by you, other than just being grumpy old men in the park.”

Chi-Yul chuckled. “First off, you aren’t even close to being an old man. What was it you had a question on?”

“I wanted your advice on using magic. The KHA says I’ve got tons of mana, but I haven’t the slightest idea of how to use it. You know me, all I ever did was punch stuff in dungeons. They tried to help at HQ, but that wasn’t exactly helpful.”

“Hm, I don’t know how helpful I can be, but I’ll do my best. My main recommendation is to stop thinking about it. Magic wants to be used, so just do what feels right and don’t question it too much. Don’t worry about what the media says, it’ll show up when it’s ready.”

“That makes sense I guess, but not very helpful.” He leaned back, looking up at the sky. “Do you mind if we walk around for a bit? Well, roll around in my case. I’ve just been feeling cooped up lately, I think it’ll be nice to move around.”

“I hear you there. It’s hard to go from fighting monsters every week to physical therapy as our main form of exercise. Any destination in mind, or are we just wandering?”

“Just wandering, unless you can think of somewhere you want us to go, maybe we can grab an early lunch somewhere.”

After a couple minutes Chi-Yul spoke up again. “You know, gaining magic wasn’t exactly seamless for me either. I had trained my whole life to be a swordsman. So when I got reawakened I thought that it would be perfect. The skills that never mattered outside of a dojo would finally be put to use and save actual lives. It was devastating when I saw that first flame flicker from my hands.”

Jinwoo just nodded along, unsure what to say.

“What I’m trying to say is that you’ll figure it out, even if it feels like a mistake right now.”

They made idle chit-chat for a few minutes and walked aimlessly through the city, coming to a sudden stop as a crash echoed in the distance. They looked around for the source, seeing a rising dust a few blocks away. They saw a few people running in their direction with the crashing sound repeating over and over.

They looked at each other with the silent question of if they wanted to get involved, both receiving a slight nod from the other.

“Seems like it’s not too far from here. We can make our way that way, see if it’s handled by the time we get there.”

Jin-Woo agreed. “Yeah, we should at least make sure everything is okay, the local hunters will probably be there already.”

They did their best to pretend they didn’t love the thrill of the fight like every other hunter. After all, there was a reason they were called hunters. There was an innate desire to find and defeat your prey within just about everyone awakened, with healers typically as an exception.

Getting closer, the sounds of battle got louder, rocks smashing together and people shouting out commands. Luckily they didn’t hear any screams in the mix.

It took them a couple minutes to get there, and things weren’t looking good. There were only five low rank hunters there, likely E or D, and they didn’t seem particularly experienced either. One of them was already down, a crowd forming as they watched the hunters struggle with a large golem made of rocks held together by some sort of blue energy, slowly swinging its arms down in clumsy attacks.

He glanced over at Chi-Yul briefly. “Remember that D rank boss from last year?”

“Yeah, it seemed familiar to me too. We ran it around in circles for hours as we chipped away at it, won’t work here though, too many people around.”

They were near the perimeter so Jin-Woo adjusted the sword so he could draw it easily. “Yeah, but it was also super top heavy. You go high with one strong fire blast and see if you can knock it down. Once it’s on the ground I’ll take it out. But you’ll need to wait until I’m close, I’m not moving fast anytime soon.”

The older hunter laughed and let a burst of fire swirl in his hand. “After that nightmare of a dungeon, I’d follow your plans no matter how crazy. Just tell me when.”

A soldier came up to stop them as they crossed into the battlefield but after seeing the sword and fireball correctly assumed they were hunters and got out of their way, even if he looked a bit confused about the wheelchair. As Sung’s eyes focused on the enemy and began moving in, Chi-Yul could have sworn he saw his shadow flicker and grow darker.

Jin-Woo passed the rookies that were huddled behind a shield bearer between casting spells. He got close enough for the golem to notice him and started to pull its attention from the hunter it was about to crush. The beast took a few lumbering steps closer, forcing him to start wheeling as fast as he could, which wasn’t actually that fast since he wasn’t exactly used to it yet.

He nearly tipped over from the shockwave of a heavy stomp, but it wasn’t time yet, the golem’s stance was too solid. Too close and he’d get hit, too far and he’d just stomp or throw rocks. After a couple tries he finally got the distance just right and the giant reached forward to grab him. 

“NOW!”

A ball of fire shot through the air and exploded against the back of its head. The creature’s balance was already poor from leaning towards Jin-Woo and the blast was just enough to send it tumbling face first into the ground.

The collapsing golem missed him by just a couple of feet, but he couldn’t worry about that now, he wouldn’t have a lot of time before it got back up. He locked his wheelchair in place and drew his sword before slowly standing up, he was still a bit wobbly on the uneven ground, but it would have to be good enough.

Walking unassisted on a broken street was out of the question, even if he made it all the way to his target he’d be far too slow. Shifting as much weight onto his real foot as possible, he crouched down and jumped through the air and onto the monster’s back. After landing in a less than elegant manner, he scrambled up its body and straddled the back of its neck.

Raising the sword up in both hands, he plunged it straight into the back of the golem’s head, causing the blue glow of the monster to dim. He didn’t know it at the time, but everyone there could see wisps of pure darkness rise off of him as his shadow moved in unnatural ways and one of his eyes began to shine with an almost neon blue.

As he sat atop the dead monster, he felt his magic stir within him for the first time. Part of him wanted to laugh, the fight was already over and now his magic wanted to kick in. But he followed Chi-Yul’s instructions and just let it flow through him and did whatever felt natural, doing his best to not think too hard about it.

He felt words bubble up, and if someone asked him why he was saying it he wouldn’t have had an answer, but in the moment it just felt right.

“Arise.”

Chapter Text

“Arise.”

As the word passed through his lips, he felt a strange pull from within him. He’d never felt it before, like lifting something with a muscle he didn’t know he had. As wisps of darkness and blue flame began to rise from the monster’s corpse he belatedly realized that he was doing magic. He wasn’t sure what kind of magic, but he was certainly doing something. The fire and darkness swirled and condensed until it created a shadow-like copy of the creature laying dead in the street.

His mind was mostly filled with the thoughts ‘what the fuck?’ and ‘how the fuck?’ as he tried to piece together the undead creature that he made? Summoned? Raised? He didn’t know the terminology for this sort of thing. Everyone else around him had frozen in place, seeming to be going through various levels of ‘what the fuck?’ as well.

To make matters worse, the undead golem knelt before him, bowing his head as if Sung Jin-Woo was his king. Which was a fine gesture on its own, but he was certainly not ready for undead shadows to start swearing loyalty to him. Once more he felt an odd compulsion running through him, the creature needed a name.

“I’ll call you Golem.” It wasn’t creative, but that didn’t matter, the monster seemed happy with its name, or at least as happy as a living(?) rock can be. But what was he supposed to do with it now? He didn’t need a summoned monster at the moment.

“Um, you can go now?”

It nodded and entered his shadow, much to the surprise of the novice necromancer. As he got his wits about him he climbed back down from the corpse of his new shadow-creature-thing (he was going to need to think of a name for those).

It took a single step for his prosthetic leg to give an ominous creaking noise. He glanced down and saw that the plastic was cracked and there seemed to be a bend in the metal support. Well, that wasn’t a good sign. His physical therapist had apparently been very correct about the leg not being built for any sort of combat, just that one jump and crawling on the golem’s back had been enough to break it.

He was starting to lose his balance when a very welcomed presence came over to him with his wheelchair.

“Thanks for bringing that over, the last thing I needed was hopping around as I looked for it.”

Chi-Yul nodded in acknowledgement. “Jin-Woo, what was all of that?”

“I’m as lost as you. I really didn’t think your advice would be relevant so soon. You should be a teacher or something.” He elbowed the older hunter lightly with a smile, trying not to worry too much about all the magical nonsense.

“You say that as a joke, but I do teaching on the side at a dojo. But for now we should probably get out of here.”

Before they had taken even a few steps the two of them were swarmed.

“Sung Jin-Woo, what can you tell us about your skill?” “You weren’t on the team for this fight, what caused you to come here and intervene?” “How long have you known about your abilities?” “Are you intending to keep the spoils of today's fight for yourself, or will you leave them to those who were here initially?”

Chi Yul looked down and saw how overwhelmed Jin-Woo was quickly becoming. He was good with people in small quantities but had no idea how to deal with crowds that were all focused on him.

The one armed hunter returned the nearly forgotten sword to its sheath and led the way through the pack of ravenous reporters, repeating the mantras of ’We will not be answering any questions at this time’ and ‘no comment’.

Once they finally got free, they both went on their separate ways home, their quick hangout having taken a lot more time and energy than expected.

Once he got home, he happily went back to bed for a much needed nap, very much looking forward to putting off dealing with any more magical discoveries. After resting and eating, he set about figuring out what cleaning he could and couldn’t do from a wheelchair.

Jinnah came home from school right after he’d given up on sweeping and was wiping down the counters.

“Hey, how’d school go? Learn anything new today?”

He couldn’t even pretend to be surprised as he gets the non-answer of, “Not really, but it was fine I guess.”

Part of him wanted to push back and try to be engaged in what she was studying, but as long as her grades stayed in a good spot he was fine with her declaring everyday that she didn’t learn anything. “Sounds boring.”

“Yeah. But enough about all that. I saw you fought some sort of monster downtown, which is way more interesting, and also a bit concerning.”

“Don’t worry, I know I’m still recovering, but it wasn’t too tough. I think they said it came from a D rank dungeon. I’m guessing you saw the whole shadow monster thing too?”

She sat down on a stool near him, leaning back against the wall. “Obviously, that was the craziest part. It’s all over the internet already.”

“Well, at least you’re taking it well. You don’t seem that thrown off by the necromancy stuff.”

“Eh, there’s been enough weird magic stuff in this family that I’m kind of numb to it.”

She looked a bit uncomfortable, and he could guess that she was thinking about their dad so he figured it would be best to move the conversation along. “Fair enough. I’m guessing social media had a lot to say about me again?”

Jin-Ah looked to the side nervously. “The good news is that people aren’t being dismissive and calling you weak anymore.”

“The bad news?”

“Wellllll, there may be a quickly growing hashtag based around you being the literal devil or possibly the grim reaper incarnate. Which isn’t great.”

“It’s only been a few hours.”

“A bunch of people were live streaming the fight. That’s not what’s important though. I think you should lean into this and get a scythe and a super cool cloak, maybe a skull mask.”

“Why on earth would I do that? Wouldn’t that only make more people think I’m evil?”

“Probably, yeah. But it’s all about branding. Every S class has an image that they project. Yours can be dark, mysterious, and scary as hell.”

“I’m not that scary, am I?”

She rolled her eyes like he was the dumbest man she’d ever met. “You literally started leaking darkness, resurrected a dungeon boss as a shadow thing, then you absorbed it back into yourself. That’s terrifying, but in a cool badass way.”

“You’ve lost me. Is it terrifying or cool?”

“I didn’t want to tell you this, but I guess I have no choice.” She made a dramatic swooning motion. “I don’t know if you’ll be able to handle such upsetting information.”

“Just spit it out.”

“Well, while half of the internet is calling you the devil, the other half is calling you ‘daddy’.” She made a gagging sound as if the very thought would make someone vomit. “In my opinion you still look like a dork. But yeah, here’s a good example of the thirsty side of the internet.”

She showed him a picture where his shadow summon was kneeling in front of him, but the text on it was about how he could make them kneel any day. Is that a thing people wanted? God, the internet was fucking weird.

“Oh, that reminds me. Is your rock dude still in your shadow, or did he only last a little bit.”

“Uh, no he’s still in there. I won’t take him out here since he’s too big, but it doesn’t seem like it drains any mana to have him around, only to create him, which is super helpful.”

“Wait, does that mean if you got more you could have like, goblin zombies doing the dishes and stuff?”

“Maybe? I really don’t know the limits for this. Is that really where your brain goes?”

“I’m just saying, having a bunch of zombies sitting around is a waste, might as well put them to work.”

“I’m sure that has nothing to do with you trying to get out of your chores?”

Jinnah gasped in fake shock. “What? Me? I would never do something so awful. I love doing chores, I just don’t want your monsters to get bored.”

“Alright alright, don’t get ahead of yourself. I only have the one so far.”

He wheeled around the kitchen, putting away the cleaning supplies so he could get started on making dinner. He was about to stand up to grab the pot he needed for the soup he was going to make, then he remembered he didn’t have a real option for doing that.

“Ah, fuck.”

Jin-Ah looked up from her phone to check on him. “Everything ok?”

“Yeah, I just forgot that my new leg got damaged today. So I’ll have to get a new one.”

“Your doctor lady is going to be pissed, you just got that thing.”

“I know, if I’m going to keep doing hunter stuff I’ll need something tougher, probably made of mana-rich material. I should be getting one within the next month or so, but it’s still annoying.”

“You’re not retiring? I thought you were done?”

“Now that I’m S rank it’ll be a lot safer, besides, I’ll need to do a lot fewer gates to pay the bills.”

She sort of grumbled at him, clearly displeased. “Whatever, I don’t want to talk about it.” She huffed in frustration before rapidly changing the topic, which he gladly accepted. “You’re getting a magic leg?”

“I’ll also settle for a flying wheelchair.”

“Hm, I know it won’t work here, but what about having your new rock buddy carry you around. Like, ride around on his shoulder to look extra badass.”

“That’s actually not a bad idea. Maybe I should keep my eye out for horse monsters so I can have an undead steed.”

“You know, you say you didn’t like the idea of dressing like the grim reaper, but now you want to ride around on an undead horse? I’m clearly wearing you down. You should start taking scythe lessons now for when you inevitably realize my ideas are the best.”

“Sure they are.” His phone started ringing and he looked down to see it was from Woo Jin-Chul. “Hang on, this is probably important. Can you get dinner started while I take this?”

“Sure, is it that handsome government man?”

He decided not to respond to her and instead wheeled to his room to have at least some privacy.

“Hello.”

“This is Woo Jin-Chul. I hope that you’re doing well.”

“Come on, don’t pretend like we don’t both know what this is about. You want me to come to HQ again now that we know what my magic is.”

“That is correct. When would you be available?”

“I can come in tomorrow. Today has been a lot, so if you’re going to want me to do more than talk, I have no interest in doing it anytime soon.”

He heard the man chuckle lightly. “Understood. I believe it will just be a conversation with the chairman and seeing what your summon is capable of.”

“That’s fine. I’ll see you then.” 

He hung up and wheeled back to the kitchen. “Damn, that was quick. What did handsome government man want?”

“He just wants me to go to HQ tomorrow. I was probably a little rude, but I’m tired of talking to people today.”

“You’re talking to me though.”

“You don’t count. You’re not ‘people’.”

“I honestly don’t know if that’s a compliment or not, but I’ll take it.”

Chapter Text

The next day he got ready to head back to the KHA headquarters. It had taken serious self control to not experiment at all. He was obviously curious about what he could do, but he doubted his landlord would be okay with a giant golem on the property before he was confident on what it could do.

Jinnah was sent off for another day at school, he hoped she didn’t have to deal with any issues there because of his new fame. After about an hour later it was time to go, so he made his way down to the parking lot.

Once again he was picked up by Woo Jin-Chul, who was wearing his suit and shades as always. Soon enough they were on their way to meet with the Chairman to discuss and test his new abilities.

“I’m starting to feel like you’re my personal chauffeur with how often you’re driving me around.”

“Please, don’t worry about it. You’re definitely one of the more pleasant S-classes. So I don’t mind.”

“Are they really that bad?”

“I’ve found that the more powerful a hunter is, the more… eccentric they tend to be. Which tends to make my job more difficult.”

JIn-Woo chuckled a little, in this case, ‘eccentric’ seemed to be code for ‘asshole’. They arrived shortly at the large KHA building, Jin Chul opening the car door for him and bringing the wheelchair around.

Rather than going into the main building like they did last time, they went past the offices to the large gym behind it. When they reached the gym he came across one more tiny inconvenience since losing his leg.

There was a single step to get into the building. It couldn’t even be called a step, it was barely a few inches tall, but he knew if he tried to go over it he’d probably land on his face. It shouldn’t be a big deal, but it felt so humiliating that he was completely foiled by something that barely deserved a ‘watch your step’ sign.

Jin Chul coughed to get his attention. “I understand that being an S rank is very new to you, but please contain your presence before an alarm is raised.”

His words pulled him from his thoughts. “Huh? What do you mean?”

“Your aura spikes with your anger, and most systems aren’t able to differentiate the magical energy between a hunter and a monster.”

“Oh. Sorry, I forgot about that.”

“I assumed as much, but please be aware that our monitoring systems likely registered that as something similar to an A or B dungeon break. It’s not an issue when you are here or at your home, as we know to disregard them, but it may result in reinforcements being sent needlessly. Regardless, I will make sure that there is a ramp installed in the future. It is our fault for not considering accessibility.”

He just nodded, still not sure how he was going to get inside without making a fool of himself. The door was big enough that the monster would probably be able to walk through by just ducking a little, besides, they were here to test his magic anyways.

As if responding to his thought, the undead monster rose from his shadow and lifted his wheelchair while he was still in it and carried him inside.

It was unnerving and didn’t feel particularly secure, but he couldn’t deny that it was cool. He reached back and pat Golem on the arm. “Damn, my sister was right, I should use you to go everywhere.”

Once he entered the spacious gym he saw the chairman of the HA, Go Gunhee. Other than him the reinforced gymnasium was empty. “That answers the question of whether or not you keep your summons after dismissing them into your shadow.”

“Uh, set me down Golem.”

Once he was on the ground again he wheeled over to the chairman and shook his hand. “It’s good to see you again sir.”

“You as well. Now, let’s figure out exactly what this guy can do.” The retired hunter rubbed his hands together in anticipation, clearly excited to learn about the undead monster. “Do you mind if I test how tough it is?”

“Sure, I don’t think he’ll be much of a challenge though, since the original was from a D gate.”

“I guess we’ll see, won’t we? The strength might be determined by you rather than what it used to be. I won’t hit it too hard to start out.” The chairman pulled back his arm, and in a flash struck the shadow monster, causing it to explode into wisps of shadow. However, barely a few seconds after it was destroyed, it reformed and seemed completely unharmed.

“Huh, so it seems like it uses my mana when I create the shadow summons and when I heal them.”

Woo Jin-Chul looked at him in surprise. “So, you’re saying that if this golem isn’t injured, you could have it fight forever without any cost?”

“Yeah, I think so.”

Gunhee looked at the creature in open fascination. “And you can store it in your shadow at any time, correct?”

“Yeah. And from what I could tell no one else could tell that it was in there.”

Woo Jin Chul spoke up, “Try storing it in my shadow, rather than your own.”

The thought hadn’t even crossed his mind, but he supposed it made sense. Whether or not it would work came down to how his magic worked. Was his shadow being able to hold things, or was his summoned monster able to enter shadows?

“Golem, enter his shadow.”

The monster charged at Jin-Chul with far more urgency than needed. Right before they collided it collapsed in on itself and funneled into the patch of darkness on the ground.

“Wow, that’s amazing. I didn’t think that would actually work. Do you mind if I leave him with you for now, to test if there’s a range or time limit on that?”

Jin-Chul nodded in response, “That’s fine with me, your golem isn’t much of a threat so I don’t see it being a problem.”

“Thanks, was there anything else, or do you want to discuss whatever you wanted to talk about?”

“I think that’s all the questions I had on your skill that we could answer right now. The main reason I called you here is that I wanted to offer you a job. The Hunter’s Association needs strong hunters like you in it. It might not pay as much as joining a top guild, but it’s a stable job where we do good work to help keep our country safe.”

He thought about it for a long moment. All he could think about was his sister, and how scared she was to lose him in a raid. He could have a job that was safe. He’d be able to pay for his mom’s medical bills and take care of Jinnah without risking his life everyday. And even if he wanted to, he couldn’t deny that going into dungeon raids handicapped was dangerous at best.

But at the same time…

“I’m sorry, but I’ll have to decline.”

“Oh? Can I ask why?”

“It’s honestly a tempting offer, and I might take you up on it one day. But I’ve spent my entire life weak, I was even pretty well known among the E and D rankers as ‘the weakest hunter’. And now I finally have the chance to be strong. To be able to protect myself and my family with my own hands. I can’t just turn that down.”

Go Gunhee nodded thoughtfully, “And to do that you will need more summons and more battle experience as an S rank. How about this, you keep raiding dungeons and grow as a hunter, then in a few months I’ll try again and see if I can’t convince you.”

He reached out and shook his hand with a smile. “I look forward to talking to you then.”

That night he sat on the couch, watching television with his sister when we felt an odd sensation, not too different from when he’d first summoned Golem.

“You alright? You had a weird look for a second.”

“Yeah, I think so. You know how I told you I left my shadow thing with Woo Jin-Chul?”

She tilted her head in confusion. “Yeah, how could I ever forget about the handsome government man?”

“Stop calling him that. Anyways, I just noticed I had some sort of link still with Golem. I’m not sure what would happen though if I tugged on it.”

“We should definitely find out. Maybe let’s step outside first in case it summons the rock dude.”

A couple minutes later they were standing in the parking lot behind the building. He followed the sensation that tied him to the golem. It led him to the surprising experience of looking at Jin-Chul’s apartment from inside it. He could see the man, but from the perspective it was clear that he was looking at the man from inside his shadow.

“Holy shit, I can look through Golem’s eyes.”

“What?! Are you seeing something inappropriate right now???”

He gave her a disgusted look. “No. He’s just eating take out. Honestly, it looks delicious. I wish I was there-”

Before he could finish his sentence about wanting the man’s food he found himself standing where the shadow monster once was. Which meant he was right up against a very surprised Jin-Chul.

“Sung Jin-Woo?! What are you doing in my house?!”

“I’m so sorry. I can apparently switch spots with my shadows. I’m going to leave now.”

The man stared at him as nothing happened.

“Uh, I’m not actually sure how I did this.”

He just gave Jin-Woo a cold and collected stare before sitting down. “No rest for the wicked I suppose. Explain exactly what happened and hopefully we can figure this out.”

“It’s fine. I’ll just head home and we can worry about it tomorrow.”

“Perhaps I controlled my tone a bit too well. I find this incredibly interesting, I’ve never heard of anyone with the ability to teleport.”

“I’m still sorry for causing you trouble. Long story short, I realized I could see through Golem’s eyes and thought about wanting to eat your food. I guess just thinking about wanting to be there was enough? But other than that, you know as much as I do.”

Jin-Chul was quiet for a few moments as he thought something over. “Are you positive you don’t want to work with the Surveillance Department?”

“Huh?” That was not the response he was expecting.

“You have the ability to place completely hidden creatures on anyone you want. You can see everything they do in real time, and to top it all off you can teleport yourself to that location whenever you want. These are some of the most powerful skills I’ve ever heard of, and none of them are battle oriented.”

“I can’t tell if that’s a compliment or not.”

“It’s simply an observation. Typically S-rank skills are very based around violence and destruction, but yours aren’t. None of your skills are inherently violent. Everything you can do leans towards being a leader rather than a soldier, and with what we learned tonight, you’re essentially a walking spy network.”

He thought through the abilities he knew about for other S ranks. There were a few that could control fire in some sense, various forms of strength enhancement was common as well. The only ‘non-violent’ one he could think of was that guy who could make barriers. That and healers of course.

“I guess you’re right. But like I said, I want to get stronger first before I consider anything.”

“Well, I hope the chairman has a good plan for convincing you to join, because we could really use you on our side of things.”

He stood there awkwardly for a little bit, trying to mimic that same feeling of when he’d teleported there but with no success. “I should probably call a taxi or something, I don’t want to intrude or anything like that.”

“My apartment complex is pretty far out of the way. It will probably take you at least an hour or so to get home from here. My guess is that there’s a time component on that ability, so it’ll probably be faster to just wait. Secondly, I ordered way too much food, and it apparently looks good enough to make you teleport.”

He thought about it for a second before agreeing. “Alright, that sounds good to me as long as you really don’t mind. I need to text my sister though so she doesn’t worry about me any more than she already is.”

Jin-Woo had thought the man was a bit stiff, but as they discussed potential applications of his new ability he found that the bureaucracy wasn’t too bad. He seemed like the kind of person that would be a reliable friend.

After they had finished dinner he felt that connection with Golem shift again. “Oh, I think I can go back now. I can’t really describe it, but it feels like it’s there again.”

Jin-Chul looked at his watch. “It’s been exactly three hours. I suppose I’ll see you the next time you casually realize something else earth shattering about your abilities.”

He laughed a bit in response. “Hopefully that won’t be too soon, I’m barely getting a hang of-”

He then immediately hit his head on the table, since Golem had been in Jin-Ah’s shadow, which just happened to be cast under it when he accidentally triggered the skill.

Chapter Text

It had been a solid plan, raid a dungeon, resurrect the monsters he killed, get stronger, then repeat that for a few months. One problem showed up pretty quickly. No one wanted him on their raid.

He didn’t want the long term commitment that came with joining a guild, and all of the dungeons that the association themselves handled were D and E rank, which wouldn’t have the stronger monsters he needed. So he’d been looking into joining a strike team for a few C rank raids before moving on to stronger stuff.

But so far no one wanted the creepy S-rank necromancer to go on a raid with them. It took him nearly a week to get into a raid, which was ridiculous for low ranking dungeons.

The strike squad he joined was honestly kind of sketchy, but it was probably going to be fine. There were six people that were regulars and two people, including himself, would be joining just for the one gate.

When he got there a very excitable man came up to him. “Hey there! I’m Yoo Jinho, you’re Sung Jin-Woo, right?”

He turned his wheelchair to face the man. “Yeah, that’s me.” His armor was so shiny, and he seemed way too cheerful. “You’re new at this, aren’t you?”

He scratched at the back of his head in embarrassment, “Yeah, this is my first raid. I’m only a D-rank, but I’m hoping my gear will offset that.”

Yeah, there was no way this guy survived more than a week of fighting in the dungeons. Either a monster killed him because he didn’t know how to use a sword, or another hunter did because his gear was worth at least a year’s income for most D and C rankers.

The leader of the raid, Hwang Dongsuk, came up to him with a friendly smile. “We’re getting ready to head out soon. Are you going to be all set? Dungeons aren’t exactly a great place for wheelchairs.”

He didn’t say it in a rude manner, and it was a reasonable question for a leader to ask. He would need to know what his fellow hunters could and couldn’t do.

“I’ll be alright.” He tapped a knuckle on his plastic leg. “I can get around just fine, just giving my leg a rest for now since I know I’m going to have to do a lot of walking in a minute.” He still didn’t have the reinforced version, so he made sure to bring spares just in case.

“Ha! That’s fair, no one ever talks about how much cardio is involved in a dungeon raid. Now, you said you’d be able to help out with the porter work?”

“Well, not ‘me’ specifically.” He’d been getting better at only summoning his shadow monster on purpose. As he focused on the connection to Golem, the monster rose from his shadow and stood tall above the other hunters. “But he’ll be more than able to carry everything.”

“Damn, that thing is impressive. You’ve only got the one so far?”

“Yeah, but that’s what I’m here for, hoping I can practice my skill on monsters today.”

‘Practice my skill’, sounded much better than ‘experiment with raising the dead’.

He gave a grin in response. “We’ll just have to kill plenty of the bastards then.”

Not much later they all grouped up and made their way into the dungeon. There wasn’t any sign of monsters at first, but then he heard a scuttling sound coming towards them. Ugh, bug monsters were the worst. They attacked in swarms and were honestly gross as hell.

“Ants from above!”

Everyone braced and the two with shields stepped forward and deflected the attacking insects so they could be picked off by the others.

“Good catch, they almost caught us off guard, attacking from the ceiling like that.”

Jin-Woo nodded and focused his magical energy. “Arise” 

The ten dead ants around them suddenly had black wisps rise out of their bodies, forming shadow ants that bowed before him. He heard at least a few of the hunters whisper ‘holy shit’ from behind him.

He looked at his newest summons. “Protect this group against the monsters in this dungeon.” They immediately scattered and started chasing down any living ants they could find.

He quickly learned that these ants were useless as anything other than being meat shields. It took very little to destroy them and it took two of his shadow ants to kill one living one. At least it answered a few of his questions. He could create multiple shadows at once and his shadows were considerably weaker than they were while alive.

It seemed like his shadow versions had somewhere around two thirds the strength of their living counterparts. Still, even if his shadows were less powerful, the fact that he could continuously heal them more than made up for it.

They had made it through a large portion of the dungeon when they answered another big question he had. His ‘Arise’ stopped working, so he counted his summons and found that he had 150 shadows at his command and he could only get 100 of them into his shadow at one time. That was probably his hard limit, so he would grow stronger from here on by replacing his current summons with stronger monsters.

He paused for a moment. He could replace them, right? He wasn’t stuck with these shitty ants forever, right?! He picked an ant at random and focused on it with a desire to sever his connection to it. There was a push back against him for a moment, like his magic telling him to be careful, which made sense, he doubted this was something he could undo.

Once he completely severed the connection the ant exploded and he was able to use ‘Arise’ again to replace it. Panic over. He wasn’t stuck with the ants.

After an hour or two they reached the boss room, a massive spider sleeping inside. Not only that but they found crystals lining the wall that would earn them quite a bit if they managed to harvest them.

The man in charge pretended to think something over. “That monster looks like it’s sleeping pretty soundly. Jinho, can you watch over it while we go back and grab the mining equipment? We’ll be back in a few minutes, plus a big spider like that won’t want to leave its web. But if it starts to move just come and get us.”

Jinho looked a little nervous but agreed, which is another reason it was obvious this guy was a newbie. Anyone who knew their way around a dungeon would see that this was a murder not a supply run. They weren’t even being subtle about it, they just told the kid they needed everyone but to go get mining equipment while the mining bag was not even ten feet away where Golem was carrying it.

They took a few steps out of the boss area and kept moving until they were out of earshot. He turned to the other hunters. “You do this sort of thing often?”

They looked at him with suspicion at first. “Come on, I might be new to these weird ass abilities, but I’m not new to being a hunter. So what’s the plan? Do one of you have a barrier spell, or were you just going to collapse the entryway?”

After hearing his words they seemed more confident they could convince this S ranker to be in their circle, someone they could benefit off of.

“Yeah, we’re gonna take out the entryway, wait for the spider to get its fill then take it out. We get a bigger cut and his fancy gear.”

“You still didn’t answer the question. How many times have you done something like this? Because my reputation is already garbage, I don’t need murder charges on top of it.”

He barely knew why he was continuing on with this charade. Part of him just wanted to know exactly how much he needed to hate these men, how justified he would be in taking them out.

“Oh, you don’t need to worry about that. We’ve done this dozens of times. What happens in the dungeon stays in the dungeon.”

“You know what, I definitely agree with that sentiment.” 

In all his time as a hunter, he’d managed to avoid this sort of thing as well as he could, partly because he wasn’t worth fighting. There was no real money or prestige to gain from attacking ‘the weakest hunter’, if anything, it would make the attacker look bad. Besides, he was well known enough that anyone looking for a fight would be hesitant. It was much easier to pick on some newbie that no one would realize went missing.

All that meant he’d never actually attacked another person before, but he couldn’t find himself regretting his choice as Golem’s arm rose from the crossbow user’s shadow and grabbed him by the throat. Mandibles bit into their feet and legs, keeping them from running as undead ants poured out from the darkness. Every shadow cast across the cave was another trap for the insects to tear into their flesh.

Three of them filled the dungeon with their screams as they were eaten alive by the swarm. Within moments, only two were left standing.

One of them had managed to cut through all of the attacking ants, deftly moving around the impromptu battlefield with a sword in one hand and a torch in the other, the light keeping them from rising up below his feet. One misstep was enough though, with the flame held out in front of him a shadow was cast onto the wall of the cave that he’d just stepped in front of. He realized his mistake as five different ants cut into his body, silencing him as his spine was severed.

The only one unscathed was Hwang Donsuk. He stood with glowing red aura around him, Jin-Woo’s summons unable to pierce the defensive skill.

The man yelled at him as he cleaved an ant in half with his sword. “You bastard! Do you have any idea who my brother is?!”

Jin-Woo stared at him with cold eyes. “Do I look like the kind of person who cares who your brother is? If you’re trying to play on my emotions by bringing up your family, I’d like to remind you that everyone you killed had a family too. And if you’re trying to threaten me, well, your brother will have to kill you to get to me.”

The hunter looked at him in confusion and terror at that particular threat. “Arise.”

His biggest question that he’d been afraid to get the answer to was whether or not his power worked on humans or just monsters. And he received his answer as five new shadows rose from the ground.

“Kill him.”

With the simple order, the undead men lurched forwards and attacked their former leader. Hwang was already the strongest of the group and they had been weakened even more in the process of being summoned back to the land of the living. Even then, a five on one fight caused the hunter to struggle as he hacked and slashed his way through the ghosts of his murdered friends.

Finding a brief opening, Hwang charged forward at Jin-Woo. “You sick bastard! You’ll pay for this!”

He pulled his arms up to block the powerful overhead attack, but at the last second Hwang dropped low and delivered a powerful kick that snapped his false leg, sending him to the ground.

“I’ll kill you, you piece of shit.” He raised his foot to stomp on Jin-Woo but was interrupted by a blast of light magic. It wasn’t strong enough to get past his magical defense, but it was enough to pull his attention for a moment. And that moment was long enough for Sung Jin-Woo to grab him by the ankle and throw him across the dungeon, slamming into the wall with a loud cracking sound.

Jin-Woo slowly got up, sitting on one of the ants like it was his wheelchair as it brought him over. Hwang was splayed out on the floor, his defense had finally been broken, leaving him with gashes on his body and struggling for breath.

Jin-Woo drew the sword he’d gotten from Chi-Yul and aimed it down at the man. Part of him felt he should say some final words, maybe something witty or a final condemnation, but there was nothing to be said. Hwang’s suffering was ended in a single strike, blood pooling beneath him as Jin-Woo pulled his blade from out of the man’s skull.

“Now Arise, you piece of shit.”

Chapter Text

Jin-Woo stumbled back away from the various corpses that were spread across the cave floor. He made his way awkwardly to a rock that he sat on while he pushed down any emotions he had about what just happened, he couldn’t afford to lose focus while in a dungeon.

He summoned forth Golem and took the gear he’d been carrying. As he swapped out his broken prosthetic for his spare he heard a shuffling sound, with a quick glance he saw Jinho glancing around the corner, eyes wide with terror. As soon as he realized Jin-Woo spotted him he pulled back behind the wall of rock.

“You can come out. I’m not going to hurt you. This was me saving your life. They were going to kill you for your share and your armor.”

“O-oh. Why would they do that?”

God, this kid really was fresh from his awakening. “Because they like money. Don’t ask stupid questions. Now, stay here and hold that bag.” He gestured toward the sack they’d been using to carry essence stones.

“Uh, sure ok. I can do that.” He slowly came out from where he’d still been partially behind the rock and walked over, but not without staring at the bodies and vomiting on the ground.

Jin-Woo turned to his summons while Jinho recovered and made his way over to the sack of crystals. “Golem, you and the humans go take out the boss. Ants, go collect any remaining essence stones and the mana crystals on the walls.”

They all went off to do their various tasks immediately, leaving him to just lean back and wait. “And now we just wait, it’s probably going to be a lengthy battle of attrition. Luckily my mana is far higher than its health, so it’s just a matter of time until it falls.”

Jinho just nodded as ants kept coming over to him, dropping a crystal in the duffel bag, then skittering away to grab another.

After nearly half an hour he stood up and started making his way to the boss room. “My summons stopped losing health, so it’s probably dead.” He was actually shocked by how much magic he’d lost in that fight. But as he paid more attention to the mana drain it made sense. His weaker summons were draining his mana faster because they had to be healed more often, so stronger summons would probably cost him less mana even if that was counter to usual logic.

It didn’t change his goals or his plan to get stronger and stronger summons, but it was still good to know. It meant that strategies based around many weak summons were an awful idea because it would drain him so much faster than a single powerful summon.

He stood in front of the giant spider that was now bleeding across the stone floor. It was covered in countless slashes, burns, and dents from their continuous attacks. It was odd to look at an enemy that he technically killed but hadn’t laid a single finger on himself. He dismissed another ant before he spoke.

“Arise.”

Nothing happened. He felt the tug of a new shadow, but it didn’t go all the way. That was odd and more than a little alarming.

“Arise!”

That time it worked, and a massive spider shadow rose from the ground. Ok, so his ability still worked, but stronger enemies might not be resurrected on the first try. How many tries did he get? Well, he supposed he would find out some other day.

The giant spider did something similar to a bow. “I think I’ll name you Aragog.” The spider seemed happy enough with that and joined the others in his shadow.

He cut out the mana stone from the dungeon boss and added it to the bag before handing the large duffle to Golem to carry. He turned to Jinho. “Alright, let’s get out of here. But don’t leave once we get outside, I have to make some important calls first.”

Luckily the new hunter was too frightened to question anything else right now.

Woo Jin-Chul was in his office when he saw his phone ring with an unexpected caller id. Their newest S rank was reaching out sooner than expected, perhaps he’d changed his mind about joining the KHA, or more likely he’d discovered some other aspect to his odd abilities.

He picked it up and gave his standard greeting. “Hello, this is Woo Jin-Chul of the Surveillance Division, what can I help you with?”

Jin-Woo’s came through stony and cold. “We had an issue with lizards after fighting some ants.”

“I see. Any survivors?”

Externally, he remained calm and composed, internally, most of his thoughts were ‘oh fuck’ and ‘oh shit’. ‘Lizard’ was a term within the community for hunters that killed teammates, either for money or by using them as bait. The fact that he specified that they fought ants made it even clearer that there were no literal lizards in that gate.

“Just myself and Yoo Jinho. The dungeon is cleared and neither of us are injured.”

“Okay. Please stay while you are while I handle this. I don’t want Yoo Jinho to leave until the needed paperwork is filed.”

He hung up and got to work. Being the director of the Surveillance Department meant he was also the director of any coverups, which happened more often than he liked. It was good though that Jin-Woo spoke in code though, it left one fewer thing to deal with since he didn’t have to worry about the call being used to incriminate him in court. It would still be cleared from their systems, but it wasn’t as urgent compared to if he’d stated outright that he’d just killed six men.

He pulled up the records for what raid Jin-Woo had been scheduled for today and who had been on it. For time purposes, it was helpful that he immediately recognized the team and had been investigating them already. By every other metric though, it was a disaster. The reason they’d never suspended or arrested the team for the frequent deaths had been that their leader was the brother of an S rank.

The unspoken portion of his job was to do whatever it took to keep S-class hunters attacking their country or each other. Because the S-class in question was in Thoms Andre’s guild, it would be even more devastating to their nation if this escalated.

He needed to hide this incident and fast. There weren’t any dungeon breaks nearby,  and the surviving D rank kept him from saying that they had misread the dungeon’s rank. He spent the next hour scouring through their files before he found something he could use.

Hwang and his team had killed barely three days earlier and they’d just gotten the report of the two dead hunters that morning. Even better (at least for his purposes), the families hadn’t been notified yet of the deaths because of the delayed reporting. He supposed he couldn’t expect killers to be punctual with notifying the government of their latest atrocities.

Because it hadn’t been processed yet, no one had actually looked at it yet and all it took was a few keystrokes to change the dates around and hopefully bury this incident for good. He made sure everything was ready to be submitted when he got back and would send someone to do the standard notifications of death tomorrow morning. It wasn’t perfect by any means, but it would take a hell of a lot of digging to find any sort of inconsistency or signs of tampering. 

The sun had started to set when Woo Jin-Chul arrived on the scene. There were only two people there. Yoo Jinho was sitting on a rock while Sung Jin-Woo was in his wheelchair. If nothing else, it was good to see that neither of them had left and no one else had gotten involved. Secrets inherently got harder to keep secret as more people were in the loop.

He turned to the nervous boy whose very presence was the last piece of the puzzle that laid out the story of what happened. Some rich new kid in overpriced armor was about to get killed and robbed by the other hunters, Jin-Woo steps in and does what he needs to in order to save him.

“Yoo Jinho, to prevent any issues or confusion going forward, you went on this raid three days ago and everything went fine. There were no casualties or anything interesting, just a basic raid with ant monsters.”

“But that wasn’t what happened?!”

“Yes it is.” He pulled out the report that showed just that, backdated for a few days prior.

“And the raid that happened today, the two temporary members had passed fighting giant rats along with the rest of the team. Luckily I was nearby today and was able to handle it since I noticed that the raid team hadn’t returned when we expected it to.” He presented the other file, showing that the entire team of eight had perished in the gate they’d just left.

He checked his watch. “According to my paperwork, I will be done defeating the boss in about an hour.”

It all worked out that, according to any piece of paper or digital trace, Sung Jin-Woo wasn’t even on the deadly raid that happened today, and the only ones who had any knowledge otherwise were the three of them. He just needed to be sure that Jinho would keep this to himself, or else they could have a national crisis on their hands.

“Mr. Jinho, has this added clarity for you on today’s events. Could you remind me when you went on your dungeon raid?”

He felt bad, the poor boy looked like he was going to soil himself, but he couldn’t risk this getting out. Yoo Jinho nodded quickly before realizing it wasn’t really a yes or no question. “I-it happened a few days ago, and nothing bad or terrifying happened.”

“Good. You can get out of here. Friendly advice kid, this isn’t as uncommon as I wish it were, so unless you really need the money, you should consider a different career.”

After the newbie scampered off, he sat down near the necromancer and sighed. “Now that he’s gone, do you want to talk about what happened in there?”

Jin-Woo finally looked up at him and he could admit he was a bit surprised to see tears running down his face. “Have you ever killed someone before?”

His feeling of surprise was replaced with sympathy. “I have. I take it this is your first time?”

“Yeah… I just couldn’t let them keep hurting people. They wanted to bring me in on their scheme, and they admitted to doing this dozens of times before. I didn’t know how else to stop them. And now six people are dead because of me. Maybe I really am a monster like everyone says.”

He placed a gentle hand on his shoulder. “You’re not a monster. You did what you had to in order to protect someone innocent. That doesn’t sound like a monster to me, that just sounds like a good man in a hard situation.”

With a steady stream of silent tears, he raised his hands and all of his shadows rose from the ground. There stood Golem, a giant spider, and a huge swarm of ants, all standing at attention as wisps of shadow hovered around their bodies. But what caught his attention the most were the humanoid shadows that were clearly the dead hunters. Well, undead hunters now.

“Is this what a ‘good man’ looks like to you? How do you know I’m not exactly what every damn tv channel says I am? Just some deranged creature that wears human skin, a lich that has the KHA fooled and will kill everyone if given the chance.”

“That’s enough of that. I’ve only known you for a few weeks, but I consider myself a good judge of character. You’re a kind person and I won’t just stand here while you talk shit about yourself. I think what’s best is for you to just go home for now and get some rest.”

He shook his head. “I don’t want Jinah to see me like this.”

“Alright, I’ll bring you to my place and you can text your sister that you’re with me to talk about something important.”

He just nodded. “Does it ever get easier?”

“No. I don’t think it does, and honestly, I don’t think it should, it’s how we know we’re still human.”

Chapter Text

Sung Jin-Woo didn’t know how long he’d been staring at Woo Jin Chul’s ceiling, but it had probably been a while. He just kept oscillating between feeling justified because he saved Jinho and feeling like a disgusting monster that was worse than anything that came slinking out of the dungeons.

Jin Chul sat down next to Jin-Woo on the couch once he’d finished covering everything up and submitted the last form to make it so the event never happened.

“I wish there was a way I could make it hurt less, but there isn’t. All I can offer is that I would have the same decision you did, and that all you can do is to keep moving forward.”

Jin-Woo nodded slowly. He couldn’t protect anyone if he didn’t keep fighting. But who would ever want to fight by his side? The last couple times he went on a raid nearly everyone but him died. Even if both events were either classified or hidden, it didn’t change the truth. He couldn’t even remember how many people had died in the dungeons with him, but it still hurt every time.

Maybe that was the solution. If he started fighting on his own, without anyone around, then everyone would stop dying around him.

Jin Chul gently wrapped a blanket around him. “I don’t know what you’re thinking right now, but it’s probably not true. I went through this too, and I can tell you that isolation and torturing yourself over it will only make it worse. Being alone doesn’t make the pain stop.”

“I hate this so much, I don’t want anyone else to die because of me.”

“I know. I’m sure you’ve lost other hunters in dungeons before, I know it’s not the same, but was there anything you did that helped back then?”

“I guess. Usually everyone who survived the raid would go out and get wasted. We’d drink and remember the friends we lost. Doesn’t really apply here, because instead of losing an ally I killed people.”

“It’s ok to mourn their deaths even though you made the right choice. No one is all good or all bad, so mourn for their families and friends, but be glad that they won’t hurt anyone else.”

“I guess that makes sense.”

Jin-Chul stepped away for a moment and returned with a bottle of wine and two glasses. “But who am I to stand in the way of tradition? Today has been exhausting and generally awful and I don’t have work tomorrow, so my only plans for the rest of tonight are to get drunk and fall asleep.”

Jin-Woo chuckled a bit, “That sounds like a solid plan that I can get behind.”

It didn’t take long for Jin-Woo to be fully drunk and crying on Jin-Chul’s shoulder, who was only a little tipsy.

“They just left me behind, you know. I was the reason they survived, and they left me to die! Only one of ‘em even apologized for it.”

“That’s awful.”

“Would you leave me to die in a dungeon?”

Jin-Chul shook his head. “Of course not. And not just you, I would never leave my allies to die. That’s part of the reason I’m in the association instead of doing raids, the dungeons are much too cut throat for me.”

“See, that’s why you’re a good friend. Real friends don’t leave you to be murdered by giant murder statues.”

“That’s a very low bar. I hope that your current friends help you raise your standards.”

“Can I tell you a secret?”

“Of course.”

Jin-Woo whispered to him, even though no one else was there. “I still can’t go to parks or places with statues. Ever since the double dungeon I feel like any statue I see is going to come alive and kill me.”

He nodded, encouraging him to go on.

“I know they’re just regular statues, but they scare me worse than any dungeon boss. It’s so stupid, but I feel like I’m back in that hell whenever I see one of those damn things.”

“It’s not stupid. That’s a normal response after going through something that traumatic.”

He was quiet for a few moments before he spoke up again. “Do you think my mother would ever forgive me? I promised her I wouldn’t be a hunter and that I wouldn’t spend the money to keep her alive, but I’ve broken every promise. She didn’t like how violent and dangerous the work is, and now I’m crippled and a killer. I’m everything she didn’t want me to be.”

Woo Jin-Chul really felt like they should really talk more about his new statue phobia, because it was a clear sign that he was still haunted by that dungeon. But drunk Sung Jin-Woo refused to stay on a single topic for long.

“I don’t know your mother so I can’t speak for her, but I’m sure she would disagree with you. You’ve been doing your best to raise your sister, you’ve made the best choices you could with what you were given. I’m sure she would understand that your best options didn’t fall in line with what she wanted for you.”

This caused the conversation to stop because Jin-Woo had gone back to crying on his shoulder.

Once he had calmed down again and things remained quiet, it wasn’t much longer until Jin-Chul had fallen asleep on the couch. But Jin-Woo couldn’t bring himself to sleep. He had far too many on his mind to sleep.

He felt restless but didn’t want to wake his host, so put on his spare leg and wandered around the apartment building without any real plan. After a few minutes he found himself on the roof, admiring the city. He wished he had something to do.

He had spent all night thinking and talking about how he was betrayed in the double dungeon and then about how Jinho was nearly betrayed by his own team members as well. He was tired of being betrayed and hurt. He wished he could just do a dungeon on his own, so he could let out his anger on the monsters within, but also because he knew he wasn’t wanted as a team member.

As he thought about that a swirling blue portal formed in front of him. From the magic radiating off of it, it was probably a C ranked gate.

He could do a C gate on his own. Now no one else would have to worry about this gate and get hurt. He went to grab his sword but realized he didn’t have it on him. Where did he leave it again?

He thought about it for a second before deciding thinking was too hard.

“Golem, come forth or whatever.”

The massive rocky creature rose from his shadow and knelt before him. Sung Jin-Woo walked behind him and went through the large duffle bag on its back.

“Hmmm, mana crystal, mana crystal, first aid kit, aha! Here it is!”

He pulled out a pickaxe and gave it a few practice swings before deciding it was good enough “Uh, you can go back now Golem. Oh, I should text him first, I don’t want to worry him when he wakes up.”

He sent a quick text to Woo Jin-Chul before making his way into the gate. He had a half empty bottle of wine in one hand (he’d already finished the first), and a pickaxe in the other. So, he felt ready to take on a dungeon on his own.

Jin Chul woke up feeling very groggy and a crick in his neck from sleeping on the couch. With a glance at his clock he could see he’d only been asleep for about an hour or two.

Wait a second, where was Sung Jin-Woo?

He saw his wheelchair and sword were still there, so he didn’t go home, but a quick look around told him he wasn’t in the apartment. 

He checked his phone just in case and found all the information he needed but certainly didn’t like. The dreaded text read: ‘hey their, fond a gate on you roof. Gonna take cane of for ya. We should have ice cream when done.’

Autocorrect had clearly done its best to fix the very drunken text, but that didn’t make it any less nonsensical. It took a moment to put together what was going on. It didn’t help that the only clear sentence was about him wanting ice cream later.

Was Jin-Woo suggesting that he found a gate and entered it alone while very drunk and emotionally compromised?! And to make matters worse he was probably doing this unarmed and without any spare legs.

He didn’t have time to look for his own quality equipment so he just grabbed Sung’s sword and started sprinting to the roof.

He wasn’t sure if it made him worry more or less that there actually was a gate on his roof. But what was alarming, or at the very least confusing, was the large pile of dead wolves on his roof as well. The shadow of Hwang sat among the bodies and was removing their essence stones. After a moment, two more of these red wolves with metal jaws were thrown out of the portal to join the pile.

He didn’t have time to think about what was going on so he kept on moving. The mana radiating off of it was weak enough that he could handle it easily, so he ran in right away rather than spending time to notify the proper authorities. Maybe he could get away with it since people usually would report this sort of thing to him and he could just say he reported it to himself. Apparently it was just a day for breaking rules.

Jin Woo was quickly becoming the most problematic S rank even if he was still his favorite.

It seemed to be some sort of urban-esq setup for the dungeon, almost like an abandoned subway station, but he didn’t pay too much mind to that. There were dead wolves strewn about in various states. One looked like it was ripped in half, one was embedded in the wall, and quite a few were decapitated.

He ran past over a dozen of them before he found any sign of Jin-Woo. It was clear he was close when he saw the shadow versions of the dead hunters collecting magic crystals from the walls or carrying the wolf bodies towards the exit. The shadows didn't pay him any attention and kept at their tasks.

He finally reached his destination and found a massive pile of what had to be at least a hundred shadow wolves all cuddling on the floor. As he got closer he saw Sung Jin-Woo in the middle petting one of them.

“You’re such a good dog. Yes you are! Yes you are! You’re the best shadow puppies, yes you are!”

Eventually Sung Jin-Woo looked up and saw him. “Heyyy, look who’s here!”

All of the wolves looked over at him and howled with excitement.

“I’m glad I was able to find you. Are you ok?”

“Huh, yeah, why wouldn’t I be? Anyways, I need to introduce you to my new dogs.” He pointed at the one he was currently petting. “This one is named Princess. And that one is called Fluffy. And that over there is called Moony, since wolves like the moon. And this one over here is Chomper because he likes to bite, and that’s his sister Nibbler since she bites too.”

He cut him off before the very drunk Sung Jin-Woo could tell him the new names of every single wolf he resurrected. “Did you already beat the dungeon boss? I don’t think this is a great place to hang out.”

“Oh yeah. I sent my big spider to fight the big snake and I told the jerks to grab anything valuable and bring it outside. So I’m just waiting until the snake is dead.”

“Ok, how about we go check on the spider and then we can leave?”

“Yeah, I’m super tired.”

He helped his wobbling friend down to the lower area of the dungeon, where they found a massive shadow spider delivering the killing blow to a writhing black snake.

“Woo, good job Aragog! You’re a very good spider.” He then turned to the large snake. “Arise.”

They were quickly joined by a shadow snake that curled around Jin-Woo.

“I’m gonna call you Wormy, because snakes are just worms that bite.” As it eased into his shadow they grabbed the boss’ essence stone and started to leave.

He began recalling all of the numerous wolves and came to a realization that horrified the drunken S-class. He had two more wolves than he could store.

“But I can’t get rid of them. They’re good dogs and I need to pet them all.”

“You have so many wolves, would it be so bad to only have 89 of them instead of 91?”

He was harshly glared at in response, because clearly he was the ridiculous one here. The solution to this problem was that he dismissed two of the dead hunters, since he considered the two wolves to be far more important.

The giant spider dragged the snake carcass onto the roof as well, joining the near hundred wolf corpses. He was less than thrilled about that part of this little adventure. Monster corpses were worth quite a bit, but that didn’t mean he was thrilled for his roof to be covered in them. He decided he’d complain more about it once Jin-Woo was sober. The drunk hunter tried to explain to him why dogs were great, falling asleep by the time they got back to the apartment. 

When Sung Jin-Woo woke up, it was with a splitting headache and the realization that this wasn’t his bed. He rolled out of the bed and noticed he was in pajamas he didn’t recognize. He tried to put the memories the night before together but decided that the thinking and remembering could wait until he figured out exactly what was going on.

 Stumbling out of the room he found Woo Jin-Chul in a kitchen.

“Good morning. Well, good afternoon actually, you slept for quite a while. I assumed you’d have a headache so I left out a glass of water and some pain meds.”

He tried to come up with an elegant way to ask his question but gave up on the subtle approach. “These aren’t my clothes.”

“Huh? Oh, I hope you don’t mind that I changed your clothes. Monster blood is awful to clean out, so I put you in actual pajamas before letting you anywhere near my guest bed.”

“That makes sense. This might be a dumb question, am I remembering something wrong or did I clear a dungeon last night?”

He actually laughed in response to the question, “That you did. I had an interesting time explaining the mountain of dead monsters on the roof to my boss so that he could send someone to retrieve them. I think they just finished up a little bit ago. Luckily they dealt with it before the landlord found out about it.”

“You can keep any money you got from the bodies. I know I’ve caused you a lot of trouble lately.”

“Hey, I wasn’t saying that to make you feel bad. Sure, the stuff yesterday with covering things up was just me doing my job and preventing an international incident. But everything after that, that was me just being a good friend and supporting you. Besides I’m sure If I ever need your help you’d be there for me as well.”

“Yeah, of course, not sure how I could be helpful though.”

Jin-Chul paused what he was doing and fully turned around. “Did you forget that you have one of, if not the strongest ability of any hunter? You’d still be very helpful and a good friend even if you weren’t an S rank, but you’re definitely more influential than you realize.”

“Oh, that’s fair. It’s honestly easy to forget I’m not an E rank anymore.”

“I wasn’t sure whether or not to bring it up, but since you’re doubting your ability to help out, there’s actually something I could use your assistance on.”

“Hm, what’s that?”

“Are you familiar with the Hunter Redemption Program?”

“Uh, that’s the one with the prisoners, right?”

“Yes. I’ve had concerns about one of the hunters in charge of the program for a while now. His job currently is to accompany and monitor the prisoners while they are in the dungeon. He has an unusually high mortality rate for his missions and his lifestyle is far more than what he should be able to afford.”

Jin-Woo nodded along. “But it’s hard for you to do anything official since he’s part of the division that would be in charge of stopping him.”

“Yes, he has many friends that would alert him long before we could take action. I want you on the raid tomorrow so that you can place one of your shadows on him, then we can finally figure out what he’s been doing and why. You don’t have to do it if you’re not comfortable with any part of it. But if you can, it would be a good step in reducing corruption within the KHA.”

“No worries. Should be an easy job, how hard could it be?”

Chapter Text

Before going home, Sung Jin-Woo stopped at a KHA building to sell them the mana crystals and essence stones he’d gotten. It was technically called ‘the Seoul Hunter Exchange’, but because of the acronym SHE, it was typically called things like ‘that lady’ or ‘the bitch’ for people that felt like they’d gotten ripped off (which was most of the low ranked hunters).

It was just down the street from the headquarters in a building that had been a bank before everything went crazy in the world. There were cameras all over the place and two A rank hunters standing guard outside, though right now they were just hanging out and keeping a passive eye on the place.

Even if you somehow got past two fully armed A rank hunters, the building was always filled with hunters, both as employees and customers. Plus, it would take less than five minutes for hunters from the KHA headquarters to start pouring in once they triggered the alarms. The occasional desperate hunter would try something, but so far no one had been successful, and he doubted that would change anytime soon.

With the exception of monster corpses, just about all magical raw material from the Seoul area went through there, making it one of the most frequented places for hunters and a key part of any logistics. Granted, guilds that sold essence stones in any sort of bulk would go in through the back with crates instead of waiting in line at the front desks.

He wheeled himself inside, waving to the guards as he went by.

“Yo, Jin-Woo! Good to see you, man. You’re the last guy we ever expected to re-awaken, but you definitely earned it. The news can say what it wants, but we know you’re chill and have got your back.”

He gave an awkward smile and thanked him for the sudden declaration of support before heading inside. It was a bit uncomfortable since they weren’t really friends. Sure, he knew them after coming to the building so many times, but they’d never really talked much. He just sort of kept his head down and got into line, hoping that no one else would recognize him at least until he was done with his business there.

There was a large Television attached to the wall that listed the value for each rank of essence stones and the value of mana crystals per pound at various purities. It was always important to check them since prices tended to change pretty frequently. In bright red and in a very large font at the bottom were the words ‘We do not barter!’, which was also on a few signs around the room. That had been added a few years earlier after nearly every hunter tried to convince, flirt, trick, or even intimidate the receptionists into getting them a better price.

When he got to the front of the line he saw Ha-eun, a woman in her thirties who’d been working at the exchange since it had opened. She gave him a standard customer service greeting, not yet looking away from her computer as she logged in the previous person’s sale.

“Welcome to the Hunter Exchange, what can I help you with?” She glanced over at him, immediately freezing as she put things together. “Wait a second. Jin-Woo, is that you?”

“Uh, yeah. I know I look pretty different now.”

“I- I suppose that’s one way to put it. If not for a few blurry pictures on the internet, I can hardly believe you’re the same person I talked to a few weeks ago. Has anyone told you you look just like your father?”

He rubbed at the back of his head. “Yeah… It’s been weird but what else can you do?”

“I hear you there. Well, how about you show me what you’ve got before someone throws a fit about the line being held up.”

“Seems like a good plan, especially since I have a bunch today. Managed to clear a couple C ranks so it’s a decent haul” Golem then rose from his shadow and placed the duffel bags filled with stones and crystals on the counter.

He could hear people behind him gossiping and chatting amongst themselves about him. He heard several different conversations where one person was confused at why an S rank would be doing C rank gates, only for someone next to them to explain the basics of his power and that he needed to work his way up to the stronger gates.

Jin-Woo did his best to ignore them and instead watched as Ha-eun sorted the crystals with supernatural speed. Like everyone else at the KHA, she was a hunter who’d decided against fighting in the gates. In her case, she was a D-ranked assassin class with the ‘Swift Strike’ skill. It wasn’t great in a fight, since it was just her hands that were fast so she was a very easy target, but that didn’t really matter in a bank setting. If nothing else, it was always impressive to watch her hands nearly blur as each gem got a brief inspection with a jeweler's magnifying glass and placed in corresponding bins before getting weighed.

“Alrighty, here’s your receipt. That’ll be in your account by the end of the day.”

He almost wept when he saw the numbers on the slip of paper. All together it came to nearly twenty thousand dollars.

As an E rank hunter trying to take care of himself and his sister all while covering his mom’s medical expenses, money was more than a little tight. They had been living from week to week and he was some level of behind on just about every bill he had. This payout though would cover all of their past-due balances and the credit card debt he’d taken out over the years whenever there wasn’t enough to get by.

It was such a weight off his chest that he wouldn’t need to worry about them turning off his mother’s life support because he was behind on a payment. Hell, he could give Jinah some money so she could go out with friends and get some new clothes for herself.

He was moving out of the way when Ha-eun scribbled something down on a piece of paper and handed it to him. “Here’s my number. Um, give me a call later so we can catch up.”

“Thanks. Sounds good, I’d always wanted to ask you about how you check gem purity, so I’d definitely be interested in hanging out.”

He didn’t want to hold up the line any further so he waved and left, a little confused at why she looked a bit disappointed for a moment.

He finally made his way home, a fair way into the afternoon with Jinnah already home from school. Jin-Woo wheeled his way into the living room, finding his sister sitting on the couch with a huge grin and her fingers together like some sort of mad scientist explaining how to end the world. The entire thing was very concerning, it was never a good sign when the youngest sibling is that excited about something.

“Sooooo, I take it the date went well?”

“Huh?”

“What do you mean ‘huh?’, the one with your boyfriend. I can’t believe you never told me you’re gay, but I’ll maybe forgive you for not coming out to me if you tell me all of the interesting details and none of the gross ones. I think he’s a great catch, even if he’s clearly out of your league.”

He scrunched his brow, trying to make sense of his sister. “I’m genuinely confused at what is happening right now.”

She threw her hands in the air dramatically. “Well, your confusion is confusing me! Didn’t you just get home from your first date with the handsome government boyfriend-man, a.k.a. Woo Jin-Chul? Or are you keeping it as an undefined situationship instead?”

“No to both? We’re just good friends.”

“Haha, very funny.” She paused and stared into his eyes. “Holy shit, you’re serious.”

“Of course I am! Why would you even think that! You’ve never been like this with any of my other friends.”

“Uh, I don’t know, maybe because you didn’t come home last night, I got a text from you that you were with him. Then you come back at like four pm the next day, wearing clothes that definitely aren’t yours. Right, clearly I’m just grasping at straws here.”

“Ok, I can see how that looks. But that’s really not what happened.”

“Well???”

“The truth isn’t nearly as fun or scandalous.”

She huffed and put her hands on her hips. “I want to know anyway. You’re important to me and I don’t want to be in the dark on this.”

He sighed. “Fine, but it’s really not as exciting as you’re thinking it is. The raid went pretty bad, so afterwards he took me to his place so he could help me out. I wasn’t in a great headspace, so it was really helpful to have that as an option. For the clothes, he lent me some of his because mine were torn up and covered in monster guts.”

To be honest, it wouldn’t have been too bad if they were just covered in monster blood. It was a pain to get out, but he was used to it. The real issue was that they also had human blood on them and it was probably best not to walk around wearing a piece of evidence.

“Oh, that’s really shitty. I’m sorry for pushing you on it.”

“It’s fine. It’s not a big deal. Besides, it’s not like you knew.”

She sort of grumbled for a few moments as she thought it over. “I feel like I should have known. We’re a team aren’t we?”

He was once again frustrated by the limitations of his wheelchair. At that moment all he wanted to do was pull his little sister into a hug that would tell her everything would be okay, instead, the best he could do was awkwardly hold her hand. “We are, but you’re still a kid. Your job is to go to school and grow up into an awesome and healthy adult. You don’t need to carry my burdens or anything like that.”

“Okay, but like, also no. I don’t want us to just ignore that you’re going through some really hard stuff. You’re always there for me, is it so wrong I want to be there for you too? Real talk, what can I do to help?”

His initial instinct was to just tell her no, that everything was fine and he didn’t need help, he’d gotten this far on his own. The truth though was that he was exhausted, both physically and mentally, even if it was hard to admit that to the little sister he’d been raising for four years now.

If nothing else, it felt like a blow to his pride, but maybe it was time to use a different approach. “Could you handle more of the cooking? I know that sounds really minor but it would make a big difference. Everything is way too high up for me to reach from my chair, and pivoting is really difficult whether I’m using the chair or the fake leg. I just-”

“Hey, you don’t have to convince me. I’ll be the best chef ever.” She leaned down to give him an awkward hug. “I love you, even when you’re being silly and trying to carry the world on your shoulders.”

“Yeah, yeah, love you too you little brat.”

She stayed in the hug for a few more seconds before pulling back a little to look him in the eyes. “Just make sure to let me know when the wedding is with government man.”

Jin-Woo smiled and jokingly threw a pillow at her as she ran away laughing.

Chapter Text

As he walked towards the swirling blue gate he felt like he was either being pranked or his life was some sort of cosmic joke. Standing there to be his allies for the day were exclusively the people that left him to die in the double dungeon.

He didn’t blame Song Chi-Yul and had become good friends since that horrid day, but the rest he wasn’t so sure about.

The most confusing of the group for him was Joohee. On one hand he couldn’t blame her for panicking and shutting down. But on the other hand, if she had been able to keep her wits about her and kept looking at the statues the three of them could have held them off for the needed time and no one would have been left behind. Her weakness made his sacrifice necessary, and that was a hard thing to put in the past.

For the other two he knew exactly how he felt. He hated them. He saved their lives multiple times and they repaid the favor by leaving him to bleed out on an altar. Other than Chi-Yul, Jin-Woo wanted nothing to do with them. It certainly didn’t help that he knew that the other hunters would be criminals and their handler, who was likely an even worse one.

Joohee came up to him with a smile. “Hey Jin-woo, it’s been a while. I’m surprised to see you at a gate like this.”

“Yeah, this is probably going to be my last C gate before I move on to B ranked ones. I probably could be doing tougher dungeons by now, but there’s nothing wrong with playing it safe.”

She nodded. “I can understand that. Speaking of playing it safe, I think this is going to be my last raid. I plan on retiring after this. I just don’t think hunter life is for me.”

“Honestly I think that’s great for you, you never really seemed to like it.”

He spotted an excuse to escape the conversation in the shape of the one armed pyromancer. “Oh, hey Chi-Yul. Do you think we could talk in private for a minute before we start the raid?”

“Hm? Sure, I don’t see why not. I’ll catch up with you in a minute Joohee.”

They stepped off to the side where they would be out of earshot. “Everything ok?”

“Everything will probably be fine, but I want you on the same page in case something goes south.”

He raised an eyebrow in question. “Alright, now you’ve got me curious.”

“Long story short, I’m here as a favor to a friend in the monitoring division. The prisoner program is going to be here today and the guy in charge did some bad shit but they can’t prove it. I’m going to put a shadow on him for some semi-legal spying.”

He nodded. “Thanks for the heads up. What’s the plan if he tries something?”

“I want to bring him in without bloodshed.”

“You got it. Not that I’d be able to take him out anyways.”

Jin-Woo smiled and slipped one of his wolves (Chompers) into his shadow. “I left a shadow with you just in case.”

The older hunter chuckled under his breath. “Damn, I didn’t even notice you did that. I’m glad you’re a good man, otherwise we’d all be screwed.”

“Thanks, I guess? Not sure if that’s a compliment or not.”

Within a few minutes an armored vehicle arrived. Kang Taeshik came out first, the man wore a nice suit and only had a single knife for his equipment. If nothing else, that showed just how suspicious this entire raid was. A highly skilled B rank hunter could easily clear a C rank gate on his own, and given his lack of gear he knew just as well how little danger he was in. Yet he wasn’t handling it alone, he was also bringing a group of C rank prisoners along with the ragtag group that had survived the double dungeon. With Jin-Woo as the exception, the rest of their deaths would either be criminals no one mourned or low rank hunters easily be written off as unavoidable collateral damage.

They made meaningless small talk as they all got ready and into formation, but he noticed Kang’s frequent vaguely concerned looks in his direction. It wasn’t too much of a leap to guess that the presence of an S rank would throw a wrench in his plans, the only question was if he still tried something.

The prisoners went in first with Kang close behind, the rest of the hunters giving them a bit of space. It didn’t take long for the fighting to begin, they’d only been inside the dungeon for under a minute when the first goblin jumped at them. Goblins weren’t a dangerous foe, but they tended to be more clever, using teamwork and ambushes the moment your guard was down to kill hunters that normally wouldn’t have an issue.

The hunters in the back didn’t really need to do much beyond stay alert, the prisoners in the lead were skilled and bloodthirsty enough to happily carve their way through the dungeon. It wasn’t long though before the path split into three. He walked over to Kang and had to hold back a smile when their shadows finally overlapped and he filled it with twenty wolves. He hadn’t managed it earlier since the noon sun had been making it a difficult task while outside.

“So, do you think we should split up or continue as a group?”

“I think we have enough people to split up without any worries. We’ll split into three groups, and if anyone finds the boss room, make sure to inform the other two groups so that we can take it down as a team. I have to stay with the prisoners, so I’ll take them down the middle path.”

“That sounds like a fine plan to me, I’ll take Joohee and Song Chi Yul.”

They split off and continued down the path. “Wormy, kill all the goblins in this tunnel.”

The giant snake took form and charged deeper into the dungeon, making quick work of the goblins in its path.

Song looked over at him incredulously. “Is that giant undead snake monster named ‘wormy’?”

“Ugh, I was drunk when I named him and now that’s the only thing he responds to.”

The older hunter laughed loudly at that. “Holy shit, that’s hilarious. Wait, does that mean you did a dungeon drunk?!”

“I may or may not have gotten very drunk, wandered off, found a C rank dungeon, and cleared it before the friend I was with found me.”

“Sometimes I forget that you really are an S rank badass.”

He suddenly stopped moving. Why couldn’t he sense the wolves he’d put on Kang? He didn’t feel them get injured and he’d barely used any mana so far.

“I’m not sure what, but something’s happened with Kang’s group.”

He looked through Wormy’s eyes to see if the three paths joined back together or if they’d have to backtrack.

Less than a minute of traveling through the tunnels Wormy came upon a massacre.

All of the prisoners were dead and Kang had a wicked smile of pure joy as he held his blood soaked dagger. His connection to his wolves had returned at about the same time, the cause for his link flickering in and out of control still unclear.

The rogue hunter looked over at the shadow snake. “You must be one of Sung Jin-Woo’s monsters. I guess the paths tie together if you’re here. I better make myself presentable then, maybe I’ll give myself a few cuts before he gets here to sell the story.” Kang suddenly turned around as the other two hunters entered the area. He got lucky in that Kang had clearly never considered that Jin-Woo could see through the eyes of his summons.

“What the hell happened here?!”

“The prisoners attacked and I had no choice but to retaliate. It seems that they were hoping to kill me and escape.”

“I don’t know why the HA even has this damn program.” The D ranker paused as he realized most of the wounds were knife slashes to the back, which pointed to Kang being the instigator rather than just defending himself.

Kang watched as the two hunters’ hands drifted to their weapons. “Damn, I guess I’ll just have to kill you as well. It looks like these vicious prisoners killed you both before I was able to stop them.”

Before he took a single step his shadow exploded as all twenty wolves burst out and started biting into wherever they could reach. Kang managed to stab a few of them in quick succession, but they healed fast enough it didn’t make a difference. It was by no means the standard equipment, but dozens of wolves clamped onto a person’s limbs worked pretty well as restraints.

Sung Jin Woo walked into the open area and looked into the eyes of the bound assassin, “Kang, you’re under arrest for the murder of these prisoners.”

Kang grit his teeth through the pain, shaking his head in disagreement. “These men were killers and rapists, and they would have been released within a few years with this damned program. A father came up to me and begged me to avenge his daughter, who’d been raped by that man and then killed herself afterwards.” He tilted his head towards one of the downed criminals. “And you’re going to act like I’m the monster in this situation.”

“I may not like them, but the two men you were about to kill don’t exactly fit the heroic murderer story you’re trying to tell. To me, you just look like a man who likes to kill and doesn’t care too much about who it is as long as you get your blade bloody.”

Kang just cackled in response. “You got me there. I took out the first prisoner because I was paid to, but the rest were just for fun.” He paused for a moment as he looked directly at Jin-Woo with an unpleasant intensity. “You know what? I think you’re more like me than you want to admit. I can see it in your eyes.”

“Shut up. We’re nothing alike.”

“Oh, but we really are. I can see the killer in them. I wonder how many people are hiding in your shadows. I would bet no less than five, How close was I?”

He picked up Kang’s knife and held it to his throat. “I told you to shut the hell up.”

The man responded with a manic grin, as if this were the perfect outcome. “Do it then. Kill me, I know you want to.”

He tossed the knife to the side. “No. I’m going to drag you out of this damn dungeon and have you arrested for what you’ve done.”

He had the other wolves let go and threw the man over the back of the undead wolf named Princess. As they began walking out he gestured to the giant shadow snake that was still sitting there. “Wormy, you can come back now. Aragog, go kill all the monsters left in the dungeon.”

At his command a massive undead spider skittered towards the nearby boss room to clear it out.

After a few minutes of walking one of the men he’d just saved came up to him. “Sung, I wanted to apologize-”

“Apology not fucking accepted. You left me to die. You can’t fix that with a ‘I’m sorry’, and even if we do have that conversation, it won’t be in the middle of a dungeon while transporting a murderer.”

“Right, of course.”

They walked for another minute or so when he lost contact with the wolves in Kang’s shadow again and he suddenly had a very familiar sensation. It was the feeling he got whenever a monster tried to kill him, and right now it was approaching quickly from his left.

Responding to this, Wormy came shooting out of his shadow and bit down blindly around that spot. He whipped around to see what had just happened and saw the venomous fang pierced through Kang’s chest, a goblin’s knife slipping from his hand.

Jin-Woo muttered under his breath angrily. “Damnit, how did no one see him move?” He thought of the sudden disconnect and put things together. “He must have Stealth, or something like that.”

He looked at Kang again and saw the life begin to drain from his eyes as he was crushed between powerful jaws and pumped full of venom. “You idiot. If you had just given up you would have survived.”

The man gave one last feral grin as he slipped away. “But where’s the fun in that?”

His body went limp and Wormy placed it on the ground. “No, you don’t get to run from your wrongdoings like that! You think you can escape me that easily!? Arise you piece of shit ! ” The other hunters watched in quiet horror as a shadow version of the killer rose from the ground.

He handed the new shadow one of Golem’s duffle bags. “Be helpful for once and go around the dungeon, collect any essence stones and gear you find. Come back when the bag is full.” The shadow grabbed the goblin knife he’d tried to kill Jin-Woo with and put it in the bag before sprinting back where they had come from. There was something fulfilling about using a prideful killer that loved to fight as little more than an undead porter.

He was about to leave the body behind when something caught his eye. Resting on the corpse’s chest was a stone with glowing markings. He knelt down and grabbed the odd rock.

Song Chi-Yul looked over at what he was holding. “Damn, never seen a rune stone in person before. If it’s for his stealth, then that’s quite the find.”

He hummed in response and put it in his pocket for now, now was not the time to make any decisions about skills and rune stones.

The rest of the walk back was silent, but Aragog clearly did his job because the gate began closing. For the second time, the five of them were the only survivors of a dungeon raid gone horribly wrong. 

Chapter Text

Sung Jin-Woo left the dungeon with the other survivors following close behind. Since the gate had only opened a few days ago the area wasn’t concerned about a dungeon break and it was still fairly crowded as people went about their day.

This normally wouldn’t matter, but it suddenly became very important as Kang’s shadow came out of the gate behind him and gave him the bag filled with gear and essence stones before merging back into the shadows.

He rapidly realized his mistake as a representative from the HA gasped loudly. “Was that Kang?!”

He decided his best option was to remain calm and act like nothing was wrong about him having an undead monster that used to be a hunter that was supposed to be not dead.

“Yes, there were some issues on the raid. This is everyone who made it back.”

The man just stared at him in shock and didn’t say anything. However, that didn’t extend to those passing by. People were already talking to each other, and he heard snippets of conversations.

“That used to be a hunter. I didn’t know he could turn people into those things.” “I bet he killed that hunter in order to take his soul.” “I’m not surprised that he’s a murderer with a skill like that.” “Is he going to start killing other hunters too?”

More and more people were joining the group since people were stopping to see what all the fuss was about. He did his best to ignore them and called Woo Jin-Chul, since this mess would make it to his desk anyways. He sat down in his wheelchair that had been left waiting for him outside the gate as Jin-Chul picked up.

He kept his voice very calm, even if he wasn't feeling particularly calm on the inside. “Hey, I just got done with the raid.”

“That was faster than I expected. Were you able to place the shadow?”

“Technically yes. There is undoubtedly a shadow on his person. The bad news is that there is a shadow on his entire person because he is one now.”

He was quiet for a moment. “I see. I’m sorry you had to do that. Is everyone else safe?”

“Kang and the prisoners didn’t make it out. Plus I’m pretty sure someone got a video of Kang’s shadow. The people around here saw it and seem to be getting very close to forming a mob.”

“Ok, come to the HA as soon as possible so that we can get your version of events and prepare an official statement for the press. Hopefully we can get ahead of this and spin it so there isn’t an issue later.”

“I’ll be there soon.”

Sung Jin-Woo considered calling for a car to take him there, but he was tired and didn’t want to deal with it. Plus, few taxis had room for his wheelchair, and that just added an extra hassle to the whole thing. And on top of all that he wanted to get away from the growing crowd as quickly as possible.

All of these factors together led to people watching in awe as a massive shadow spider ran down the road with Sung Jin-Woo riding on top of it. He thought to himself that it was a far more efficient mode of transportation, and that it might be worth it to invest in a saddle for his spider. Right now he got around that by sitting in his wheelchair which was webbed down to the spider.

When they arrived Aragog got as low as possible. He pulled the webbing off and had Golem place him on the ground before having both summons return to his shadow.

He wheeled his way inside and was pleased to find that the building had been made to be fully wheelchair accessible. Perhaps his bad habit of releasing an aura of bloodlust whenever there wasn’t a ramp somewhere had paid off. 

He took the elevator up to Jin-Chul’s office, where his friend was waiting for him.

“You got here much faster than I thought you would since you didn’t use your shadow teleportation.”

“Well, you’ll probably see me on the news soon riding the spider, besides I don’t have anything in your shadow right now, so that wouldn’t work.”
“That makes sense. I don’t mind having Princess with me. She’s a very good dog and I trust you not to spy on me.”

Princess made herself known by sticking her head out of Jin-Woo’s shadow. “Yes Princess, you can go into his shadow.” She quietly moved across the room and dove into his shadow. 

Jin-Chul chuckled. “Let’s get down to business, shall we. What exactly happened in the dungeon?”

He took a deep breath to center himself. “Well, it was pretty normal at first, then we came upon a split in the path. Kang and the prisoners went their own way, the main problem was that Kang apparently had the stealth skill, but managed to keep it a secret.”

His eyes went wide for a moment at the surprising news but encouraged Jin-Woo to continue. The necromancer walked him through the rest of the following events and how Kang’s life came to an end.

“I see. I’ll send that information over to the PR department so they can throw an official statement together. I’ll run it by the legal department as well to make sure there won’t be any issue with the police or anything like that.”

“Sure, do you need anything else right now?”

“If you’re up for it, there’s something I’d like to test with your newest shadow.”

He looked at Jin-Chul with curiosity but brought Kang out anyway. “Test away.”

Jin-Chul walked over to a filing cabinet and flicked through it for a few seconds before pulling out a folder. He pulled out numerous photos and laid them on his desk. Based on the backgrounds they seemed like the ID photos that the HA used for licenses.

“These are all the hunters that died on the raids that he was a part of. Kang, please tap on the pictures of the people you killed.”

Jin-Chul frowned when the summon showed no real recognition or understanding of the question.

“I think that’s just because the shadows only listen to me. Touch the photos if you killed them.” After a moment, the undead hunter began tapping away, selecting nearly twenty of them.

Woo Jin-Chu stood up abruptly as soon as he finished marking down the results. “Do you know how much good we could do with this?”

“Uh, yeah, we can give these families closure.” Which was great and all, but it didn’t seem to warrant that strong of a reaction.

“No! Well, yes, but that’s not what I’m talking about at all. No matter how basic it is, we can now get some level of witness testimony from murder victims themselves. This could help us solve an untold amount of cases.”

Sung Jin-Woo paused and looked at the kind bureaucrat. “That’s really how you see me isn’t it? When anyone else sees me resurrect a person and turn them into an undead shadow slave, they see me as some sort of demon. But all you see is how much good I can do in the world.”

“Your abilities don’t define you, you should only ever be judged by what you do with them.”

“Thank you, I think I needed to hear that actually. I’m really glad we’re friends.”

Jin-Chul looked at the floor awkwardly, “Since we’re such good friends would you help me with something mildly illegal?”

“Probably, what is it? And what brought this up?”

“Long story short, a very good friend of mine was killed a few years ago. The killer was let go because there wasn’t enough evidence to prove it was him, but I was just so angry that he got away with it that I killed him. And I need to know that I killed the right man. If I dug up her corpse would you be willing to bring her back so I can find out the truth?”

He blinked a few times, processing the information he’d just received and had very much not been expecting. “I can’t promise that it’ll work, but I can promise that I’ll try.”

“Just like that?”

“Just like that. That’s what friends do for each other. Just a couple days ago you covered up a murder for me, desecrating a grave and reviving a dead friend is no big deal.” He hated that insanity like this was becoming normal, but he didn’t know what else he could do other than just power through and deal with it as it went.

“Thank you.” Jin-Chul wiped away a rogue tear that escaped from behind his sunglasses. “This has been a weight on me for a long time.”

“How about we both get changed into outfits that stand out less and meet up there in a few hours?”

Jin-Chul paused and looked down, realizing that a man in a suit would definitely be fairly attention grabbing. “Yeah, that makes sense.”

Once he got the text that Jin-Chul had arrived, Jin-Woo rose up from the man’s shadow, wearing all black with two shovels over his shoulder.

“I figured that just switching with Princess would be more of a discreet way to get here.”

Jin-Chul didn’t say much in response. After looking around he saw that they stood in front of a small and simple grave that read:

‘ Sarah Smith 1990-2016’

He’d considered having one of his summons do the digging for them, but they all glowed far too much since they didn’t want people to notice and ask questions. So they both took a shovel and got started digging.

“We’ll probably be here for a while. Do you want to tell me more about the woman we’re digging out?”

He nodded sadly. “Yeah, I’d like that. As you can probably guess from the name, she wasn’t from here originally. Her boyfriend was though. So when Kamish began tearing apart the USA eight years ago they got married so it would be easier to flee to Korea together.

“I met them both because she was a D rank hunter while her boyfriend was a B. There were far fewer hunters back then so it was a much closer knit community. Even though she was a low ranked hunter, she was ferocious. She was a kickboxer before awakening and loved the thrill of the fight. It didn’t matter to her whether it was in a boxing ring or a magical portal, it made her feel alive in ways nothing else did. I always admired that she was so kind to those around her but wouldn’t hesitate to rip a monster in half.

“There’s no nice way to say it, her husband was an abusive piece of shit that wanted her to be a submissive little housewife. She was incredibly dependent on him and he knew it. Her visa was based on being married to him, so if they got divorced she’d have to go back to the US, which at the time looked like it might be completely lost to that dragon. He felt like he could get away with anything once they had moved here and he was right.”

Jin-Woo just kept digging quietly and let him vent, since there wasn’t anything he could think to say in response that seemed right.

“He kept her from making new connections and she was pretty much entirely isolated except for me. Which he of course hated and kept accusing her of sleeping with me to try and keep us from being friends. I don’t think he even believed that since they both knew I was gay, he was just looking for new things to be angry about.

“I suppose one day he took things too far and even a hunter’s ability to heal couldn’t save her. According to the police she was killed during a break-in, but I always assumed that it had actually been that piece of shit. So, the next time he was signed up to go on a raid, I made sure I was on it.”

He paused and looked over at Jin-Woo. “You don’t know what my skill is, do you?”

He shook his head, “No, I’ve never had a reason to, it’s not like I’ve ever seen you fight.”

He held his out and sparks arced between his fingers. “It’s called ‘lightning touch’. I can basically generate electricity, and manipulate it a little. I can’t shoot lightning bolts or anything like that, I still need contact, but it’s very good for melee fighting.”

He stopped the lightning coursing through his hand and went back to shoveling. “It took less than a second to stop his heart. It wasn’t until afterwards I even considered that I could have been wrong. That maybe the cops were right. Sure, he was probably the killer, but there wasn’t any real evidence beyond my knowledge that he was abusing her. I don’t know if that would have changed my decision, he was still scum. But at the end of the day I need to know that I killed the right man for the right reason.”

They were quiet for a minute, and honestly it was probably the most Jin-Woo had ever heard the stoic man say and he wanted to leave space in case he had more on his mind. They were snapped from their thoughts by a loud thunk as a shovel struck her coffin. From that point it didn’t take too long to get it open. They didn’t need to bring it to the surface, they just needed Jin-Woo to be able to see her in order for him to bring forth her shadow.

He did his best to remain composed as they opened her coffin, but it was clear that seeing her decomposing corpse hit Jin-Chul harder than he’d like to admit.

“Are you ready?”

Woo Jin-Chul nodded and brought out a photo of who Jin-Woo assumed was her husband.

“Ok.” He opened the casket to reveal her long since decomposed corpse. “ Arise. ”

Nothing happened, but he still felt a slight tug. It was possible, just more difficult.

“Arise.”

Still nothing, but the pull was a bit stronger on his second try. “Come on Sarah, we really need to talk to you. You only have to be here for a minute, then you can go back to resting. But right now you need to Arise .”

On the final try, wisps of shadow began to rise from her body, forming a woman with jet black curly hair in the flowing dress that she was buried in.

Sung Jin-Woo could immediately feel that this tether was far weaker than his normal summons. He wouldn’t be able to maintain this for long. He quickly held the photo in front of her, shining a flashlight on it so she would see it clearly.

“Nod your head if this man killed you, shake your head if someone else killed you.”

For a moment she didn’t move, but then she slowly nodded her head.

Jin-Chul collapsed against the dirt behind him and released a breath in a sigh of relief that was mixed with a sob. “I was right, I killed the right man.”

He looked over to his friend. “Is there anything else you want to ask her? Because I won’t be able to hold this much longer.”

She stepped forward and placed a gentle hand on his cheek and smiled down at him. He looked into her eyes and shook his head. “No, this is more than enough. I hope you’ve found peace, Sarah, you deserved so much more than what this world gave you.”

Sung Jin-Woo nodded and let the strained connection fall, her shadowy body losing its form and dissolving into nothing. He was suddenly wrapped tightly in a hug with tears falling onto his shoulder. “Thank you. Thank you so much for giving this to me. I never dared imagine that I’d get to see her again, even if just for a moment. I don’t care what anyone else says about you, you gave me a miracle tonight and I don’t think I could ever repay you for it.”

Chapter Text

If he’d thought it was difficult to join a raid party before, it was entirely impossible now. Any strike team he was interested in for a B rank raid wouldn’t even respond to him, likely in fear of becoming his newest undead summon as soon as they were inside the dungeon.

Their fear made sense, he could understand that his power was objectively frightening and these people didn’t know him, but it still made his life more difficult. After two weeks of nothing he gave in and accepted he couldn’t remain completely independent. This led him to where he currently was, talking with Baek Yoonho, the head of the White Tiger Guild.

“I wasn’t expecting to hear from you, but I’m glad that you reached out.”

“I was worried you’d be hesitant to meet, there’s a lot of bad press surrounding my name.”

He waved it off dismissively “I don’t care about any of that. You create monsters and I turn into one, so I can understand the blowback. It took a few years for them to stop saying I was an escaped dungeon boss that would eat their children. But that’s not what you’re here to talk about, is it?”

“No, it’s not. I want to join your guild for a few B rank gates so that I can create stronger summons.”

“Hm. How come you wouldn’t want to go directly to A ranks? You could just sit in the back and make summons out of what my team kills.”

“I thought about that, but I’ve found that raids almost never go according to plan. So I’d prefer to only start going into A ranks once my summons are B rather than C ranked monsters, that way I can properly protect myself if and when something goes wrong.”

“I can respect that. Most hunters would prefer to charge ahead and take the risk in order to get strong as fast a possible.”

Jin-Woo tapped his prosthetic leg. “I made that mistake one too many times, and now I do my best not to bite off more than I can chew.”

“I see. And once you’ve cleared a few B rank dungeons with us, would you want to continue our arrangement to take on A rank dungeons?”

“Most likely, but I want to make sure that this setup works well for us before making that step.”

Baek paused in thought for a moment. “I have to ask, why is such a cautious man so determined to stay independent? There is far more security in working within a guild, or even creating your own. To be frank. I want a second S rank for my guild and you would make an excellent vice guild master, you’ve got a good head on your shoulders and an incredibly powerful skill to go with it.”

“I appreciate it, but no. I’m only looking for a temporary partnership. Right now my plan is to continue doing raids until I have the monsters and bosses from at least two A rank dungeons. From there I’ll join the KHA.”

Baek raised an eyebrow in surprise. He’d amass all that power just to work as a paper pusher? “You’d work in the Hunter’s Association?”

“Yes. It’s not as glamorous and pays less, but it’s important work. And I think I’d prefer a life a little further away from the action.”

“Well then, if I can’t convince you to stay long term, how about we draw up an agreement that you’ll join my hunters on three B rank dungeons and then three A rank ones. We’ll do one or two a week depending on how many gates show up and scheduling.”

Jin-Woo looked over the quickly written up document. It wasn’t anything legally binding, either of them could back out if they wanted to, which made Jin-Woo feel better about agreeing to all of the raids at once. His eyes went a little wide when he saw how much he would be getting paid. Rather than a specific amount he would be getting 20% of the recovered loot from the raids. Since there were typically ten people per raid, that meant he would be getting paid over double what the other hunters were.

“This is way more than I was expecting to be paid for this.”

“You’re an S rank hunter who can summon hundreds of unkillable summons. If I paid you any less than that I’d be worried another guild would swipe you from me. Even if this is a temporary arrangement, I want good relations between us going forward, the same as I would for any S rank.”

He nodded and signed the agreement. He had high hopes that working with a prolific guild would mean that the other members would be more professional. All three of his most recent raids with other people ended up including getting attacked or left for dead by his ‘allies’, so the bar was very low. 

He was just leaving the White Tiger guild when he got a call from his sister.

“Oh thank goodness you picked up.”

“Hey, everything ok?”

“Uh, well, how soon are you getting home?”

“I was planning on getting groceries on the way, so probably in about an hour. What’s wrong? Do you need me to be there sooner?”

“I’m not in danger or anything, but the landlord wants to talk to you. So if you could do that thing where you walk out of my shadow that would be super cool because he’s angry and wants you here right now.”

She had barely finished her sentence when he switched places with the summon that was in her shadow. Sung Jin-Woo rose from her shadow and wheeled out from behind his sister, coming face to face with the owner of the building. The man looked at him and pointed at him while shouting. “See! Shit like this is the problem. I don’t want you bringing this freaky hunter shit into my building!”

“I’m sorry, but I’m not sure exactly what the problem is? I’ve been an active hunter for years now. Was there a complaint from one of the neighbors?”

“Have there been complaints?! I’ve been called by at least half of the people in the building asking me to kick you out. And that’s what I’m here for.”

“Wait, you’re evicting us?! I’m all caught up on rent and we haven’t broken any rules.”

“Well you being here isn’t acceptable. If you haven’t noticed, there’s been protests outside nearly every damn day and no one can get in or out without going through them. You’re bad for business. I didn't think ‘No Undead On The Premises’ had to be spelled out for you.”

He nodded along, trying to find a way to talk his way out of this. This was where he and Jinah were raised and he had no intention of letting it go without at least trying. “Okay, yeah, I can understand how that’s an issue, but hopefully we can figure something out.”

“Oh no, you’re not paying your pay out of this. The last thing I need are people becoming vegetables because you’re bringing magic shit around. I already made my decision, you have two weeks to get your things out, and if you try to change my mind that time will only get shorter.” And with that he left the two siblings alone.

After a minute Jinah spoke up, barely more than a whisper. “What are we going to do?”

He hugged her close to his chest, doing his best to support her. “I don’t know, but we’ll figure something out.”

“You’re sure?”

“Yeah. I’m sure. To be honest, money’s not really a problem like it used to be. We could move to some fancy place if we wanted to.”

Jinah chuckled and wiped away her tears. “If we’re moving anyways, I want my own private hot tub, and a balcony that overlooks the city. And a handsome man that delivers me fancy food every night!”

“Yeah, there will be none of that. Just because I could afford you living like a spoiled rich kid doesn’t mean I will.”

She swooned dramatically. “But how could I possibly survive without shirtless men bringing me caviar on a silver platter?”

He pushed her over and wheeled away. “I’m sure you’ll manage somehow. Besides, you don’t even know what caviar tastes like.”

“I imagine it’s gross and slimy since it’s fish eggs. It’s not about the food tasting good, it’s about status and the principle of the thing!”

“Well, the caviar is a solid no, but I’ll put shirtless men carrying silver platters on the maybe list.”

“Wait, really?!”

“Of course not, you brat! I’m going to find us a reasonable apartment. But if there is anything you want it to have, within reason, let me know so I can keep it in mind.”

She paused for a moment, “I think it would be nice to have an extra guest room so that friends can visit. And I want you to make sure it’s convenient for you with accessibility stuff. No acting tough and accepting the bare minimum and saying you can handle it. Don’t forget the jacuzzi either! That’s also vital.”

“Alright, so we’ve got three requirements so far. Better security since I’m both famous and generally disliked, at least four bedrooms, and designed for people in wheelchairs. That’ll probably narrow it down quite a bit, so we’ll just see what actually fits those and go from there.”

It had been a few days and the Sung household was an absolute mess. There were empty and filled boxes everywhere as Jinah was working to pack up anything they didn’t use on a daily basis. She was being helped by a couple of his human summons that were doing simple tasks to make things easier. At the same time Jin-Woo was spending most of his time on his laptop, trying to find somewhere that would work for them.

It was problematic but unsurprising that most landlords didn’t want him anywhere near their building for the same reasons they were getting kicked out. Even though the KHA had released a statement explaining the situation, some people felt very strongly that the other hunters needed to take action and arrest or kill him. Luckily the KHA wasn’t taking them seriously, since he didn’t want to be arrested or killed.

He continued going from site to site when he found a promising option. It seemed like he finally found some luck with an apartment complex that catered to current and retired hunters.

The prices were a lot more since they knew that hunters could afford it, but in return they handled privacy and security really well. And with a bit more looking it seemed like they had some apartments with the disabled in mind. Which he supposed made sense because plenty of retired heroes were missing a limb, or had some other form of severe injury that caused them to retire in the first place.

“Hey, I think this might be the perfect place for us. Take a look and let me know what you think.”

She walked over and scrolled through the website. “Uh, isn’t this handsome government man’s address?”

“Wait, what? How would you know his address?”

“Don’t ask silly questions, of course I do. Did you really think I wouldn’t stalk him after you spent the night there? Besides, how do you not know his address? You’ve been there multiple times.”

“Uh, well I usually just teleport over. And the one time I didn’t I wasn’t really paying attention to my surroundings to be honest.”

“I understand completely. How could you focus on anything other than the breathtaking eyes of a bureaucrat?”

“Are you really incapable of talking about him like a regular person?”

“Does it actually bother you that I tease you so much about it?”

“No, it’s fine I guess. It’s just kinda weird.”

“Oh, in that case I’ll just have to try harder then.”

“Ughhhh, you’re the worst. Oh I almost forgot to mention, but I’ll be gone for a few hours tomorrow on a raid.”

“That’s with the guild who has the furry as their leader?”

He chuckled. “Ok, that is funny. But he might actually kill you if you call him a furry to his face.”

“Well, I’m glad you’re working with an actual guild now rather than those random groups of people. You better come home safe or I’ll kick his ass, super powered fursona or not.”

Chapter Text

Sung Jin-Woo wheeled his way down a side road to the alleyway that was now home to a B ranked gate. He was the last to arrive even though he had gotten there a few minutes early, the ten other hunters ready and waiting.

 He could quickly tell that this group wasn't necessarily powerful, but were definitely experienced. These B ranked hunters were veterans that had been in and out of numerous raids and you could tell just by looking at them. Every bit of gear had some sort of ding or chip in it and had the grimy look of metal that had been frequently covered in monster blood.

The leader walked up to him, he was short for a hunter. He couldn’t be taller than 5’7, but he still carried himself with authority. He wore gray plate armor, a crossbow across his back, and a shortsword at his hip.

“Name’s Lee Min-Joon, I’ll be the leader for this raid. You’ll be in the back with the other supporters. I don’t give a shit about your fancy ranking or anything like that, you’re on my team for today which means you follow me. I won’t have anyone dying today because you can’t follow orders.”

“Understood, I’m not looking to cause any problems.”

“Good, we’ll be heading out in a few minutes now that everyone is here.”

They got into formation before even entering the dungeon, unsure of what exactly they would be facing this time. They had two tanks in front with large shields and heavy armor. Just behind them were the three melee fighters and three ranged attackers. In the very back were the last three, Jin-Woo and two healers, who would be supporting everyone from behind with healing and buffs.

Once they entered it had been barely ten seconds when they were charged by an orcish looking monster. It fell to ground before it could even reach their defenses, a crossbow bolt in the forehead and two icicles in the chest (courtesy of their ice mage that was also handling ranged attacks).

“Alright everyone, we’ve got orcs, which means we need to watch out for spear throwers and other basic ranged attacks. Jin-Woo, I want you sending a few things deeper in to scout and make sure we know exactly what we’re running into.”

He nodded and sent ten wolves sprinting into the cave. After a minute or so he spoke up. “We’ve got a larger group waiting not too far from here, maybe a quarter mile, there’s very few enemies until then. Looks like they are planning an ambush, but my wolves can’t get further than that.”

The man grunted. “Guess you’re useful after all. Alright, we’re gonna gas them out and seal them in.” Sung Jin-Woo had no idea what that was supposed to mean but also felt like he’d get yelled at for asking.

They moved deeper into the dungeon, killing a couple more orcs on the way with Jin-Woo taking their shadows. He ended up needing to let go of about half of his wolves to make room for the monsters he would be picking up.

The healer next to him nudged him to get his attention. “I know our Lee is a bit of a hardass, but don’t take it personally. He was a soldier before everything went crazy with magic stuff. He’s a good leader and an even better shot, even if he’s rough around the edges.”

That actually made a lot of sense and explained his choice of weapon, which was very uncommon for a hunter. He supposed if the man was already skilled with a rifle, that would be pretty transferable to a crossbow. His clear skill with the weapon made up for the fact that it was a weapon more suited to open spaces than cave-like dungeons.

They reached the entrance to the larger area where an ambush was waiting for them and paused. One of their combat mages stepped up and formed a swirling purple mist between his hands. After about thirty seconds of it building up into a condensed ball he tossed it into the opening where it quickly lost its form, spreading the poisonous gas through the room. Before it could reach them, their ice mage created a barrier, sealing the opening and keeping the poison inside.

“After about ten or twenty minutes it should lose its potency enough to be safe and all the orcs will be dead long before then.”

They continued through the dungeon like that, killing every monster with coordinated efficiency. It was clear that they didn’t actually need him there but he helped out when he could. They eventually reached the boss room, finding a ten foot tall minotaur waiting for them with an oversized handaxe in each hand.

The creature went down without any real complications. It was a simple strategy where Jin-Woo’s summons kept running interference to keep it away from the other hunters while they pelted it with long ranged attacks.

It was a good addition to his forces. He had the two C rank bosses, and now a B rank boss along with his numerous wolves and orcs. When they stepped outside he released a breath.

“Holy shit, it is always like that with your raids?”

One of them looked over to him, “Like what?”

“So calm. The monsters were the strength they were supposed to be, nothing unexpected happened, no one died, and no one tried to kill each other. That was the least eventful raid I’ve ever been on and it was amazing.”

Lee hmphed. “Well, you’ve only got one or two more raids with our team, then you can go back to whatever chaos you were doing before.”

He laughed a little, finding himself oddly at peace compared to how he usually felt after doing a dungeon raid. He made his way home and spent the rest of day preparing for the move and feeling hopeful about the future.

Jin-Chul power walked his way down the hallways of the KHA while just muttering the word ‘fuck’ over and over under his breath. He inhaled deeply and readjusted his sunglasses to regain a composed look. From the outside he was a perfect picture of a calm and collected government official, even if on the inside he was a ball of panic and worry.

He strode into his office where Hwang Dongsoo was waiting for him.

“Sorry to keep you waiting, I was in a meeting and hadn’t realized you were here.”

“Seems like I’ve had to do a lot of waiting lately. It’s almost like your government didn’t want me talking to anyone in the association.”

In truth, that was absolutely the case. He had bought time by telling anyone Hwang interacted with to stall as much as they could. They likely would have done so anyways, no one in the KHA wanted this man anywhere near their country.

“I see, I’m sorry to hear that. Now, what is it I could help you with? As I understand it, you were in Korea for your brother’s funeral. You have my condolences for your loss.”

“We had a small ceremony with family. We would have included his friends, but they all died in the dungeon with him.”

“If there is anything the Hunter’s Association can do to help, please let us know.”

The man gave a vicious grin that didn’t match his story of being a grieving brother. “I’m glad you feel that way. Because I’m here for his killer.”
It wasn’t a surprise, he knew why Hwang was there, but it still sent chills through his body to have the S-class openly admit that he was looking for vengeance. However, Woo Jin-Chul was a practiced master at maintaining a single facial expression and not letting any of his alarm show.

“I’m not sure I understand. Your brother died in a dungeon raid and there were no signs of foul play.”

“You see, that’s the problem. No one on his team would have turned on him, and the two meat shields he brought with him couldn’t kill him if they tried.”

Interesting, it seemed that the brother was fully aware and in support of the practice of sacrificing weaker hunters. “I don’t think I’m following your logic.”

“Oh, I think you do. Because there’s no way that an experienced team of 8 C rank hunters that cleared gates like that weekly would fall to a fucking rat dungeon. Maybe I would have believed it if I heard that they lost a couple of members, but a full team sweep? No way. So you tell me, what is the only thing on record that entered that dungeon and was strong enough to kill 8 C rankers without any of them even having a chance to escape?”

Jin-Chul knew exactly where the man was going with this and was very thankful for the fact that Princess was watching the entire situation from within his shadow. That way if anything actually came to blows, Jin-Woo would know in an instant.

“I hope I am not interpreting your words incorrectly, but did you just accuse me of murdering your brother?”

“Here’s the thing, I came here planning on taking you out and going home. But now that I’ve met you, I don’t think you did it.”

“Is that so?”

“Yeah, because you don’t have any motive. Sure, plenty of hunters would be thrilled to go on a quick killing spree, but you seem like the kind of guy who wouldn’t hurt a fly without filing the paperwork for it in triplicate. So, no, I don’t think you randomly decided to kill some hunters to blow off steam.” The hunter stood up and started walking out of his office. “But I still don’t believe the shit about them dying to rats, and when I figure out who you’re covering for, I’ll be coming for them too.”

Once he was alone in his office he slumped into his chair as he let the calm facade drop. He worked to process what just happened. He did everything he could to pick apart their interaction for any clues to how he could solve this problem, or maybe just buy more time.

One thing that stuck out was the very fact that he left. Why would he leave? Hwang clearly knew that he was protecting the killer, so why did he leave with some threatening words instead of trying to just beat it out of him? He could have too, Jin-Chul knew he didn’t have a real chance of beating the man.

It was like a game of chess, in order to figure out what your opponent would do you had to understand how they thought you would react. He had been about to call Jin-Woo to give him an update on the situation when he paused. That was it. Or at least, it might be. By threatening whoever he was protecting, he would obviously contact that person as soon as Hwang left.

He let his power flow ever so slightly, pulling on the sources of energy around him just enough to sense them without actually affecting anything. It was no use, there was too much interference from everything else in his office. He got to work unplugging and turning off everything before trying again.

He sat in his pitch black room with his eyes beginning to glow a harsh violet color and tiny sparks of electricity flickered around his body. There! He felt a tiny bubble of electricity still functioning. He turned the lights back on and walked over to where he felt the rogue bit of technology. Underneath the chair Hwang was sitting in he found a small listening device stuck to the fabric.

He thought about it for a second and called his boss, as he would do if he genuinely had no idea who had killed Hwang’s brother. He wasn’t sure if it was a good enough bug to catch both sides of the conversation, but he would act as if it could.

“Sir, I wanted to inform you that I just had a concerning meeting with the hunter Hwang Dongsoo. His brother died in a raid just under a month ago, and since I was the one to clear the dungeon he apparently came with the intention to kill me.”

Gunhee certainly wasn’t expecting that when he’d picked up the phone from his head of surveillance. “I see. Is he still there with you?”

“No sir, he left after he came to the conclusion that I was protecting the actual killer. I’m unsure what he’ll do when he doesn’t find the culprit he’s looking for. I’m concerned that he’ll lash out against someone innocent because there isn’t a murder for him to find.”

“Hopefully we can get this resolved without Andre getting involved. I fear what would happen if that man brought his wrath down on our country. Have a team keep track of what he’s up to, but subtlety is the priority. I’d rather they get less information than risk making him even more paranoid and irrational.”

“Yes sir. I’ll make sure to update you if anything changes.”

“Good, and I already told you to stop calling me sir so much. I know it’s professional but you’re making me feel old.”

He hung up after that and leaned back in his chair, just petting Princess, who had stuck her head out of his shadow and was clearly trying to nose her way into the drawer where he kept her dog treats.

Chapter Text

Sung Jin-Woo had spent the entire morning going over things with the new landlord. Sure, it was important information, but he was bored out of his mind and was tired of sitting still. Lucky for him, he was on his way to a raid so he could do something more active than reading and signing paperwork.

It wasn’t exactly the ‘light exercise’ that his doctor had suggested, but that wasn’t new. He walked over to the waiting group after taking a taxi to the dungeon site.

“Hey, nice to see I got your team again.”

Lee grunted in response. “Well, that’s because the other team leaders are cowards and think you’ll eat their souls or something stupid like that.”

He just smiled back, “It’s not my fault souls are delicious.”

The support mage that stood next to him during raids, Mi-Cha, started laughing loudly. “You’re fun. It’s a bummer you’ll be moving on to higher ranked dungeons soon. We’ll miss you and all of your spookiness.”

After a few minutes of chatting they all got into formation and made their way into the new dungeon. It wasn’t exactly like the usual dungeon, since the stone walls were more like a castle and less like a cave. It didn’t take long for them to find a group of four knights in full plate armor. They were certainly unusual for monsters, they almost looked more like fellow hunters than the creatures they usually found. Few typically had any weapons, let alone full plate armor and a variety of well made weapons.

A crossbow bolt flew through the air and pierced one of them between the slats in the visor and seemed to do very little, which was more than a little concerning. He sent out one of his new shadow orcs, this one holding a rudimentary club, striking the helmet off one of the incoming knights. The monster suddenly collapsed onto the ground, showing that their suits were empty inside. The other three fell soon after as their mace wielder knocked the helmets off.

With a quick Arise, Jin-Woo had the four shadowy suits of armor in his army.

The group looked the suits over and Lee grunted, “No essence stones in these. Just hollow suits, seems like we’ve got a summoner situation.” He rapped his knuckles against the armor. “Pretty tough too, I doubt most blades could get past this. I’m no appraiser, but this is probably B ranked armor.”

Just about the entire team started cheering. Sung Jin-Woo looked between them, “What are we so excited about?”

He got an arm wrapped around his shoulder. “We are going to make so much money from this dungeon. Think about how expensive decent gear is, and these guys are walking full sets of it, and it’s good armor too! Not only that, but since they don’t have essence stones there’s a good chance they’ll just keep coming and coming until we kill the summoner.”

Lee nodded. “We have five days until this dungeon breaks. We won’t be clearing it until day four at the earliest. Someone step outside to call the guild, we’re going to need more people here to collect everything and make sure we make the most of this dungeon. If we play this right we could get enough of these suits to have new gear for every B and C hunter in the country, hell, we might even be able to sell a bunch abroad.”

“Holy shit, I see why you were so excited now.”

“Yeah, this gate could really help our guild grow to a higher level, and beyond that, could help keep more hunters alive since decent armor is such a limited resource. So, if anyone sees a summoner, don’t kill it unless you’re in immediate danger.”

They all nodded and Sung Jin-Woo sent out his summons deeper into the cave with those instructions. Defeat and bring back the suits of armor but don’t attack anything else for now.

This was an amazing turn of luck and they were all feeling ecstatic, however that quickly changed as their swordsman returned from contacting the guild short of breath and panic in his voice.

“It’s a red gate! The exit is gone!”

They all froze where they were with panic. It had looked close enough to a regular dungeon and they had moved further in fast enough that they never even considered checking if the gate was closing behind them. Red gates were bad to start with, few teams returned from one alive, and almost none did it without casualties. A red gate that had no natural animal or plant life seemed just plain impossible.

Lee’s previously light smile that came with the discovery of the summoned suits of armor quickly disappeared. In its place was a cold and focused glare that was the definition of no-nonsense.

“First thing we need to do is find a defensible position and make camp. Then we evaluate what is available for resources and how long we can last with what we have. If this dungeon is mostly suits of armor, then food will be our greatest concern.”

He then turned to Sung Jin-Woo, “You have the most mana reserves, so I want your summons chipping away at them and killing as many summoners as they can while we play defense.”

He nodded and gave the new orders to his shadows.

They moved further into the dungeon in silence, defeating numerous more suits along the way. After about four hours, they found a decently wide dead end hallway and encamped themselves there so that their enemies could only attack from one direction.

“Seal us in with ice for now. Okay, everyone bring out whatever food and water they have now. If I find out you hide anything for yourself I will kill you long before those walking tin-cans can get to you.”

They all nodded in understanding. Hoarding resources was one of the most common ways for people to die in a red gate, either from starvation or infighting.

Jin-Woo laughed under his breath. “I have never been so glad that my sister worries so much about me and insists I over prepare for everything.”

Everyone looked at him in confusion. He brought out Golem, who always carried his extra supplies and made an excellent porter. On his back was a bag of rations, they weren’t tasty, but they were compact and held a ton of nutrients. Jin-Woo’s contribution alone would last the entire team a week.

“She refused to let me leave for these raids without taking at least this much food with me. I might just have to get her that handsome manservant and jacuzzi that she’s been asking for.”

Mi-Cha laughed and gave him a big hug with tears in her eyes. “I thought we were going to starve here. You better get that girl at least two manservants and anything else she wants.”

Lee grunted. “Give your sister my thanks when we get out of here, because we will make it out, all of us. We don’t have to worry as much about clean water since Eun-Kyung is an ice magic specialist and two of us can do minor fire magic.”

He turned to two of their combat hunters. “While the rest of us work on taking out the summoners, you two will stay here since blades and poison do little to nothing against these knights.”

Even if it hurt for them to hear, they knew he didn’t say it out of malice. He was just making the best strategy to keep everyone alive, so they simply nodded and agreed to their placement.

The icy wall began to crack as a couple of mace wielding knights kept swinging at it.

“Everyone get into formation.”

As soon as the ice wall came down a crossbow bolt knocked off one helmet and one of their tanks charged and slammed his shield into the other to knock it over.

“While we start making our way deeper I want you to have your big shadow beast carrying the defeated knights back to where the entrance was. When we make it out of here I want it to be with every damn scrap of metal we can wring out of these bastards.”

Gole started on his task of filling his large duffle bag with weapons and armor before carrying it back towards where they started. He pulled just about all of his shadows back to himself so they would be available on hand as they worked to push further in. Luckily his shadows had already been through this area once and a large portion of the knights had been beaten already.

He dismissed all of the wolves with him and replaced them with suits of armor. He liked the wolves, but they just weren’t very good in a fight. Even though he wouldn’t be able to store them in his shadow, he felt like it would be a good idea to raise the max amount of shadows. That meant he had a hundred knights, forty orcs, 2 C rank bosses, a B rank boss, two hunters (but he wouldn’t be using Hwang since that was the same as admitting he’d killed the man), Golem, and the couple of wolves he had left on other people.

Unfortunately he couldn’t even contact the shadows outside the gate, making it clear he couldn’t leave the red gate by any means, even teleportation.

His mana reserves were pretty depleted by raising so many knights, but he still had enough to keep going without too much problem. They’d been in the dungeon for about six or so hours and his leg was only getting more and more sore, he’d only expected to be on it for a couple of hours and he was definitely pushing it. The stump itself was healed, but it required using new muscles and he could admit to not taking as good care as he should have.

All of a sudden he felt that brief flash of threat that came with the stealth skill. Without thinking, he swung a fist towards where he felt the attacker coming from. He felt a knife pierce his hand, stopping the knife just inches away from Mi-Cha’s throat.

The knight was quickly dispatched and they found that its armor wasn’t nearly as tough or heavy as the others.

Lee cursed under his breath. “Assassin summons with the stealth skill? Okay everyone, keep an eye out for any other variants that may have skills.”

Mi-Cha quickly tended to his stabbed hand, removing the knife and healing the wound. “Thank you, none of us sensed it coming and I would have died before we could have done anything.”

He grit his teeth through the unpleasant experience of having a knife removed. “We’re on a team, that’s what we do.”

“Hey! You can be all heartfelt and friendly when we get back to camp, right now we’re in an open area with an unknown amount of invisible knights, I think they deserve our undivided fucking attention.”

“Yes sir.”

Sung Jin-Woo just nodded, they only kept walking before he stepped on a rock wrong with his false leg, causing the already throbbing pain to spike. He very gracefully fell to the ground with more than a few expletives.

“What’s wrong?”

“Sorry, just my leg. I didn’t think I’d be on it for this long.”

“Be honest with me, can you keep going?”

He had to swallow his pride when he answered, knowing that if he tried to understate things it could end very badly. “I don’t think I can. I’m nearly out of mana, I won’t be able to go faster than a walk, and getting stabbed then healed wore me out.”

“Ok, then we head back for now. I want you to have one of your summons carry you back. No reason to make your leg worse. Next time I expect you to tell me when you’re having problems immediately, I can’t make a plan without the correct information.”

He nodded and had a shadow orc hold him. It took them a little under half an hour to get back to their makeshift camp. Turns out that travel goes much faster when you aren’t being constantly attacked by magical suits of armor.

When they got back they found that the two hunters left behind had moved rubble around into a rudimentary blockade, making their small encampment easier to defend. He fell asleep nearly the moment he laid down, just so exhausted from the day. He brought back all of his shadows except a few, Golem and a couple of orcs were still moving defeated knights to the exit. He had Bull, the minotaur, standing guard with the knights he couldn’t store while they slept in case something tried to attack in the night.

When he woke up he could tell he wouldn’t be able to do nearly as much as he had the day before. The downside of having massive mana reserves was that it took him far longer to recover back to full strength. It certainly didn’t help that he still felt exhausted and just worn out in general.

He relayed this to Lee. It seemed like he was going to be mostly useless for the day, and that was a hard thing to admit.

The man simply nodded and seemed to think for a while. After they had all eaten their breakfast Lee addressed their group. “Ok, here’s the plan for today. I noticed that since these things are just puppets they don’t have very good coordination.” He looked to their ice mage, “I want you to turn that hallway into a skating rink, the smoother the better. Jin-Woo, I want your orcs with the spears and the big ass spider to be waiting on our side of the ice patch to knock them over and reel them in. We won’t be covering ground today, but either we’ll be thinning their numbers or at least using up the summoner’s mana.”

One of them spoke up. “What about the plan of moving ahead and killing the magicians before they can make more? Isn’t that the basic strategy for a summoner situation?”

“Normally, yes. But we haven’t seen a single summoner so far, which means that we’ve got at least one summoner for the boss. And there’s no way we’re getting out of here without draining their mana, otherwise we'll just have to face all of them at once in the final fight. So right now we're going to wear these bastards out while we recover so that we can outlast them.”

Jin-Woo mostly just spent the day eating and sleeping so he could try and get his energy back as soon as possible and was actually helpful by the next day. He looked into the larger hallways that their camp was branched off of. Another wave of soldiers came marching towards them, about a third fell down almost immediately when trying to cross the ice patch. The rest were wobbly but quickly fell to the spears that his orcs would throw at them. Once they were all on the ground, Aragog would web them and pull them close enough for their hunters to easily disable with close combat weapons.

By the time the day had ended, they had taken out well over a hundred knights. They were all standing around and getting ready to call it a day when arrows started flying towards them. Luckily, one of the shield bearers was able to move to the front in time and prevent anyone from getting hit. Barely a few moments later a beam of fire struck one of his orcs, the damage was healed in seconds, but it was still concerning.

“Fuck! They have ranged fighters now?! As if the assassins weren’t bad enough.”

Jin-Woo released ten of his shadow knights that he couldn’t store and replaced them with these new archers and mages. These mages weren’t summoners, just animated robes and all they could do was shoot fire, but they were still reasonably powerful.

“Alright everyone, that’s enough for today. Get rest tonight because we’re packing up and moving in deeper tomorrow. Hopefully nothing problematic will happen and we can finish up this dungeon within the week before food starts to run scarce.”

Chapter Text

Ok, so as mentioned in the previous chapter’s notes, the number of hunters according to canon makes no sense. To recap, in chapter 30 we are told that 1 in 1000 people are awakened and 1 in 5000 hunters are C rank or better. This would mean the world only has 1,400 hunters C rank and better.

Since that is stupid and I’m a fanfiction writer with a love of numbers I made new numbers.

Going forward we’re going to assume this was a mistranslation and what they really meant is that 1 in 5000 people are C rank and better, which is 20% of all hunters rather that the previous .02% of hunters (which we’ve determined is stupid).

Here is the breakdown that I propose instead of the stupid one. This is based on there being 51.7 million people in South Korea and therefore 51,700 thousand awakened in total.

Ok, so I’ll explain this table in case anything is unclear or not showing up correctly. Of the 51,700 awakened we know that 80% is E (55%) and D(25%) ranked. I divy up the remaining 20% between the higher ranks.

The next bit to consider is that this is not the amount of active hunters, just the amount of awakened people who exist in South Korea. Even for S rank we only have 6 out 10 before Jeju (because 2 died and 2 retired) and 5 after (4 died 1 retired).

So it’s fair to assume that’s the bare minimum, and that the percent that are actively hunters gets lower as the rank does because pay gets worse and the likelihood of dying gets worse.

And here’s what I calculated if we use the planet’s population instead of just South Korea.

These numbers aren’t perfect, but I feel like they make far more sense and they are what I will be using for the story. 

As an aside, if you are writing your own fanfiction for solo leveling, feel free to use this alternate worldbuilding if you want.

Chapter Text

They had been in the dungeon for eight days before they found the boss room. Everyone was still alive, but they were definitely not doing well. Their resources were all but gone and there weren’t any ways to get more. They had finished the last of their food that morning, and even that, it wasn’t like the protein bars had fulfilling meals. The only thing they had covered still was water from having a mage that could conjure ice and another that could melt it. That said, all of them were low on mana, even Jin-Woo hadn’t had more than half of his mana reserves since the first few days and had been hovering around a third all day.

Lee’s crossbow had been broken a few earlier, so he’d been using a much lower quality one they’d gotten off one of the animated knights. Just about all of their original gear had been broken and replaced by whatever the knights had that fit them, leaving the group wearing mismatched pieces of armor. Jin-Woo carried a large shield to protect himself as he stayed in the arms of an orc. Although a bit humiliating, he wouldn’t be able to keep up with the others in his current state so it was best for him to be carried around by his summons.

As they looked at the massive wooden doors to the boss room they all took stock to be as ready as possible. He’d dismissed a large portion of the shadows he had. Having so many of them cleared the dungeon faster, but it also drained him faster as they got injured. His current forces were mostly those with reach or ranged weapons to reduce the amount of damage they took.

So here they were, about to fight the strongest thing this dungeon could throw at them and just hope that the little strength they had left was enough. They were hoping that all they would find inside was a mage with powerful summoning skills (clearly) but was weak at fighting in close combat. There was definitely a concern that there would be a veritable army waiting for them inside, but there wasn’t much they could do other than hope that they’d thinned their numbers enough while traveling through the dungeon.

Lee grunted. “Alright, time for the final push. We don’t have the strength to survive a prolonged battle, so here’s the plan. Anything that isn’t a summoner we leave to Sung Jin-Woo to take care of, and anything that is a summoner, I want you to unleash everything you have on it all at once. We kill that fucker the moment we see it and stop more of these damn knights from appearing.”

They all nodded as he went forward and pushed the door open. Waiting for them was a throne room, empty except for a single blood red knight kneeling before the vacant stone throne. The knight rose to his feet, easily seven feet tall with a billowing cape and a massive broadsword at his side. If that wasn’t bad enough, there was an aura of both power and bloodlust around him, making it clear just how much of a threat he was.

“He’s not the summoner, I can feel five magic auras nearby, but the casters are concealed. So I guess the plan’s the same, I deal with this guy and you find those mages.”

Eun-Kyung sent out weak but wide ranging ice attacks, it wouldn’t hurt any dungeon boss, but it would make them more visible if they were covered in ice. The opening ice barrage let them locate one of the five casters, the rest of the hunters bearing down on the monster they could actually see.

Jin-Woo sent out Bull, hoping that his B rank boss would be a decent match for this one. The minotaur charged forwards and swung his axes at the knight while the long range fighters got into position to take shots at him.

In a single swift move, the red knight sliced Bull in half, causing him to fall to ground as he slowly fused back together. Most of the team hadn’t gone far when they paused and looked at what had just happened.

Mi-Chan looked at Jin-Woo with wide and alarmed eyes. “Uh, wasn’t that your strongest summon?”

“Yeah. I’ll keep him busy for as long as I can though.”

As they spoke, the red knight was nearly a blur as it dodged and blocked the incoming arrows and magic blasts that came at him. He sent out Kang and his three stealth knights to try and get sneak attacks on him to wear him down, even if knives did very little against sentient armor. The red knight threw a knife that had been strapped to its leg, but it seemed to be aimed where no one was standing. However, halfway to the wall it suddenly began glowing and turned mid flight. He barely reacted in time to swing his shield and heard the knife embed itself into it.

He didn’t realize that it was a diversion until he was falling to the ground, the orc holding him up having been cut in half. He quickly put together what happened as he saw the broadsword spinning through the air like a buzzsaw. It came back around for another pass, this time slamming into his shield. The meager defense broke around the blade, leaving Jin-Woo both vulnerable, and with what felt like a broken arm.

The sword was pulled back to the knight’s hand as he moved steadily closer to Jin-Woo, raising his arm for a final strike. Luckily, before the red knight could actually land a hit, Kang‘s undead shadow proved his worth by managing to slide a dagger between the chinks of his armor into the back of his knee, sending him to the ground. Jin-Woo’s archers and mages took advantage of him being down, if only for a moment, peppering the monster with as many attacks as possible.

Pushing through the oncoming attacks, the animated armor launched the sword again, the weapon going in a wide ark as it cut through his shadow archers like a lawn mower blade. The knight punched a hole through Kang’s chest and pulled the knife from his leg. After pulling out the various arrows from the chinks, he rose back to his feet, showing no sign of injury or slowing down. Jin-Woo’s magic was depleting fast and he wasn’t sure how long he could last against this guy.

Bull tackled the knight before he could reach Jin-Woo and held him still for a few moments while Jin-Woo tried to come up with a workable plan. His mind was running through anything he could possibly do to beat this absolute monster of an enemy that had no business being in a B rank gate. He suddenly thought of something that just might do it when he saw Bull wrestle the sword away, which was a huge plus. The bad news was that he changed his target to Jin-Woo and lunged towards him before punching him with his full force.

Jin-Woo was thrown backward and slammed into the wall hard enough to crack stone and make him cough up blood. He slowly rose to his feet as he had his orcs swarm the knight so he would have a moment to collect himself and take a few steps forward. He called out to his teammates, unsure how successful they had been or if someone would even be able to help him.

“I need as much light behind me as possible!”

Mi-Chan was clearly exhausted but headed his call and began making her way over to him, dodging newly summoned knights and weaving between projectiles. Jin-Woo felt his mana fully run out for the first time and watched as the knight finished cutting apart the orcs. But this time, the orcs disintegrated into nothingness and he felt his tethers to them fall apart as they were sent to the void. If his plan didn’t work then he would start losing more and more summons, and if that happened he would probably follow them into that endless void.

The red knight walked forwards and pulled his sword back to himself. He did not run or rush forward, the monster was sure of his victory. He was about to swing his blade down on the fallen hunter when Mi-Chan finally made it and the trap was complete. With an arrow in her leg and an arm outstretched, she poured the last of her mana into creating a bright orb directly behind Jin-Woo.

The light darkened his shadow and stretched it across most of the room. The moment the blood red knight was surrounded by that thin sheen of darkness his fate was sealed. The monster was simultaneously struck by at least fifty summons that had all been waiting inside Jin-Woo’s shadow. Spears, fangs, claws, pikes, and swords all sunk into him like some sort of demonic bear trap.

Stabbed through from every angle, the knight was unable to escape, thrashing against the blades that bound him until going still. The crimson armor fell into a pile as whatever kept it animated finally died.

Jin-Woo collapsed onto the ground in exhaustion, looking over to see how the others were doing now that he had done his part. The remaining two mages seemed very alarmed at the red knight falling and began to cast a powerful looking spell while standing in a glowing circle. Their animated suits of armor began pulling together and crumpling into a solid mass of metal, growing larger with every passing second.

Jin-Woo froze in terror at the newly created monster that rose from the ground. Because while everyone else saw a metal golem made of crushed armor, all he could see was an even larger statue with a wicked grin and eyes that could turn a man to ash in mere moments. He was in the double dungeon all over again as he felt the vibrations through the floor whenever it stepped.

With fewer knights in the way and the golem going after Jin-Woo, Lee and the others quickly picked off the remaining mages, causing all of the summoned armor to fall. Sung Jin-Woo didn’t even notice though, too lost within his own fear of a foe that wasn’t there. He began crawling away and towards the open door out, not remembering that he had summons or a prosthetic he could walk on.

He didn’t know how long he crawled across the floor but eventually he was stopped by Lee, who gently put a hand on his shoulder.

“Jin-Woo, the fight’s over. I don’t know where you are right now, but it’s in the past. Focus on my voice. I don’t know what helps you but we need to move. Feel that rumbling on the ground, use that to ground yourself, and also a reminder to the rest of you that we need to haul ass before this dungeon closes.”

It took him a few minutes to calm down, but eventually he came out of it with Lee talking him through it.

“Sorry… I lost my leg to a statue monster, and that giant golem... It was like I was stuck there.”

“I figured it was something like that. A friend of mine was eaten by a giant lizard, now I get freaked out whenever I see any of the scaly fucks, no matter the size. Solidarity and growth or whatever can come later, right now I need you to get your shit together because none of us are up for a multi-hour walk.”

Jin-Woo nodded slowly, still slightly out of it. He slowly tried to get up before collapsing back against a stone pillar, a wet cough wracking his chest. “I think my organs are not doing so great.”

Everyone slowly rallied together after bandaging their various wounds the best that they could. He brought out Wormy, the only summon big enough to carry them all and at least somewhat rideable. Even if they had been fighting their way through, it had still taken them over a week to make it through the dungeon, so it wouldn't be a quick journey back. Maybe if he could ignore all the pain and bleeding, he could get some rest in.

Chapter Text

Woo Jin-Chul was sitting at his desk doing paperwork when Princess got up from the dog bed he’d gotten her. He knew she could rest in his shadow, but she just looked so happy and comfy on a little dog bed. She walked over to him and started pawing at him and whining.

“You already went for walkies, go lay back down.”

She whined louder and nipped at his leg. If he wasn’t a hunter her metal jaw probably would have pierced flesh.

“What’s wrong, Princess?”

She seemed very upset and started giving a distressed howl that he was sure his coworkers didn’t appreciate.

“Princess, I don’t speak shadow wolf, I don’t know what’s wrong.” He thought through anything that might make her so upset. After a few moments he realized that Jin-Woo was going to do a dungeon that day. When he checked his watch he saw that it was exactly the time the raid would start.

“Is that it? Is it because Jin-Woo went on a raid?”

She spun in place and howled louder. Ok, so that was a yes, but he’d gone on raids before without her freaking out. What was it about this one that made her so upset?

“Is something wrong? Did he get hurt?”

She bit down on his sleeve and started pulling him towards the door. Clearly this was something that needed his attention. He put her leash on her as quickly as possible and ignored the odd looks as he walked the shadowy wolf out of the building.

It was a bit of a battle to get her into his car since she clearly wanted to get to Jin-Woo immediately and was unimpressed by the human making her wait for silly things like traffic laws and pedestrians crossing the street. He got to the gate location within about half an hour to see what had gotten Princess so worked up, though he was really hoping she was just being neurotic and freaking out over nothing.

This particular gate was in a park on the edge of the city. Just by pulling onto the street he could see the telltale red glow that told him exactly what the problem was. He parked, Princess bolting over to it the moment he opened the door. 

He could guess that the red gate cut off the connection between her and her summoner, because he likely would have already swapped places by now if he could. The upside was that it was only a B ranked gate and they would hopefully be clearing it soon.

He got to work immediately, informing the Chairman of the KHA along with the White Tiger guild of the situation. It wasn’t long before the guildmaster himself arrived as well.

Baek struck an imposing figure, but from all of Jin-Chul’s interactions was a kind man. “Has anything changed yet?”

“So far we don’t know more than the fact that it’s a red gate and that they’ve been inside for about a day on their end and one hour by Earth time.”

“I see. Is that one of Sung Jin-Woo’s summons?” He gestured to Princess, who was trying to bite the gate without much success.

“Yes, she typically stays in my shadow for transportation and communication purposes. When the raid began she sensed something was wrong, so I thought it was best to come and check it out.”

He nodded, eyes lingering on the bright pink collar.

Jin-Chul continued. “I’ll make sure we have all the necessary medical staff on site within the next hour or two. I want us to be prepared for whatever state they leave the dungeon in.”

He agreed but was looking at Jin-Chul as if he was thinking something over. “I’ll also have my collection teams here to grab whatever they can once it opens. Might as well make the best of a bad situation. If it’s already taken Jin-Woo more than a day to clear the dungeon, then there must be something powerful inside.”

Jin-Chul did his best to stay stoic and not show how worried he was for his friend as the hours began to pass. Once they’d hit hour three all of the paramedics and support staff were set up, Baek spoke to him again as they watched the bustling staff slow down as most prep was completed.

“You care about him deeply, don’t you?”

“I don’t know what you mean.”

“Yeah you do, you’ve been handling us S ranks for years and if I were the one trapped inside a red gate you’d only be worried about the paperwork it would cause. But now? You look like you’re about to crawl out of your skin at the thought that he might be hurt. So yeah, I’m pretty sure he’s something special to you.”

“I- He’s a good friend.”

He chuckled a little, “Sure. For now it doesn’t seem like there’s going to be any immediate change, so I’m going to head home. Feel free to notify me of any changes, but you should get some sleep as well.”

He nodded in response, but they could both tell that JIn-Chul wouldn’t be leaving until the red gate opened.

Jin-Chul accepted he couldn’t put it off anymore since they were getting beyond the expected time for a dungeon to take and Jinnah deserved to know what was going on.

“Yooooo, what’s up, my favorite bureaucrat person? Jin-Woo staying with you tonight again? You do this too many more times and I’m gonna start thinking he’s gonna move in with ya.”

“Hello to you too, Jinnah. Actually, I’m calling because your brother will likely be home late from his raid.”

Her voice grew serious. “Did something happen? Is he hurt again?”

“He’s likely fine. It’s a red gate, but it’s only B ranked, so we believe he should be out soon.”

“Uh huh, and he lost his leg to a D ranked one, so I think I’ll worry anyways. I’m on my way over, don’t try to convince me otherwise, handsome government man.”

He stared at his phone for a moment. Talking with Jinnah was always a confusing rollercoaster but he did his best not to question it.

He made sure to notify the other families why the hunters weren’t back yet and soon enough a small gathering of people waiting for their loved ones had formed near the gate. Jinnah and a few others had gathered around Princess, who was loving the attention.

The night sky had grown dark and they had just passed the point of five days having gone by inside the portal. Clearly they were still alive since it was sealed, but how much longer would they last?

He continued staring at the gate, trying to will it into changing blue when a middle aged woman came over to him.

“You’re Woo Jin-Chul, right?”

She had a kind smile and a bowl of soup in each hand. “Yes, that’s me.”

“It didn’t look like you’d noticed but a few people brought food to share, you know, to help support the paramedics and hunters that have been here all night.”

She held out one of the bowls, which he politely accepted. “Thank you, that’s very kind.”

“The other reason I came over here was actually to thank you. Usually if something goes wrong we just have to wait, not knowing what’s happening and no real communication or updates. I just wanted you to know that it was a kind thing you did, reaching out to all of us.”

“No need to thank me miss, I was just doing what seemed right.”

“Well, you can be all humble if you want, as long as you know we appreciate it.”

It was nearing midnight when blue light washed over the park. If nothing else, they would know soon whether or not their loved ones were alive based on if the gate started closing. Almost immediately, armor began to pour out of the gate at alarming speeds. Magical armor wasn’t exactly a common resource so seeing a dozen full sets fall out was a surprise. Hundreds, maybe even thousands, of sets of plate male spray across a part was both unprecedented and problematic. At this rate the hunters wouldn’t be able to pass through because the enchanted metal blocked the exit.

“Alright everyone! We need to clear the gate so that they can get out.” He pointed off to the side. “Start by moving as much as we can over there by that tree, everyone work together.” Hunters, family members, and paramedics alike all started hauling the gear that kept pouring out like a river of metal. Even Princess helped out by carrying a boot in her mouth, once she figured out what they were doing.

They were quickly running out of room as Jinah looked over at him. “Is this normal?”

He shook his head. “No, I’ve never seen this much gear in my life, I have no idea what is going on. All we can do is keep up our work.” For his part he grabbed the heaviest things and was moving the fastest, but they were all doing everything they could.

The gate creaked and started closing slightly. They beat the boss! “Ok, that means they are alive! Red gates usually take an hour or two to close, if they aren’t out by the time we clear this mess then I’ll head in and get them.”

They all nodded, glad that someone was there to help save their loved ones trapped inside. Within half an hour of it opening, more work crews from White Tiger showed up to help since their coworkers had called in to report the crazy situation. Truck load after truck load was driven away to make room for the next wave of swords and shields that landed on the ground.

It took nearly an hour for it to stop and another ten minutes for the gate to actually be accessible. The gate was nearly half of its original size and he was getting more than a little worried. He was getting ready to charge in when the head of a large snake made of shadows began coming through the portal. Ignoring the panicking people who didn’t recognize it as one of Jin-Woo’s, he finally saw who he was looking for. From the back of a giant snake, in various states of injury and exhaustion, was the White Tiger team with Jin-Woo at the lead.

The moment they got outside the entire team cheered, cried, and held each other. A woman leaned over and hugged Jin-Woo tightly with tears in her eyes. “We actually made it out. I didn’t think we’d get out of there.”

He ignored the weird upset feeling he had over that and instead did a quick headcount and realized with shock that every single member survived the red gate. After the snake was returned to his shadow they were followed by numerous more summons, many of which looked suspiciously like the armor that they were carrying.

Aragog the spider dragged out the torso of a giant metal golem, followed by the rest of its limbs. The final items were five mage robes and a red suit of armor. Jin-Woo looked over at the workers carrying things into the trucks.

“Make sure those six are set aside separately. Once I’ve rested I’m taking their shadows.” He then looked over at Jinah who gave him a tight hug but made sure not to knock him over.

“I’m so glad you’re safe. That was really scary.”

“I’m sorry to worry you. I’m alright. I just want to go home.”

She glared at him, as if trying to figure out how true or false that statement was, but Jin-Chul beat her to it because he recognized the symptoms faster. “Sung Jin-Woo, you are not alright, I can see the bloodstain at the corner of your mouth from coughing up blood and you look incredibly pale. From how you’re breathing I’m pretty sure you have broken ribs and I wouldn’t be shocked if your lungs were damaged. You are badly injured and almost certainly some level of malnourished, so you aren’t going anywhere except to a hospital.”

He smiled and leaned his head against Jin-Chul’s shoulder. “It’s good to see you too.”

Chapter Text

Sung Jin-Woo woke up in the hospital and groggily looked around. His sister was sitting in a nearby chair and reading one of her school books.

“Good morning sleepyhead.”

“I thought you agreed to go home and rest. You don’t need to watch over me, I’ll be fine.”

“I did, but you slept for,” She checked the time. “about 14 hours. So I came back.”

That made sense he supposed, he didn’t think he’d ever been as tired as when he had been leaving that red gate. “Did anything happen while I was out?”

“Not really. Obviously the cat guild wants to talk with you after all that and your doctor wants to yell at you for putting more strain on your leg. Um, what else… Oh, I have some soup for you. Your doctor recommended light meals for today since your body needs to recover, which means it’s soup time for you.”

He smiled at her. “Thanks, soup is definitely appreciated.”

“Well, now that you’re awake I’ll let the doctors know so that they can make sure you’re fine.”

Once his doctor arrived they went over the basics, nothing that was surprising though. Even as a caster, being an S class meant he healed rapidly and could recover from most things.

“On the brighter side of things, we finally received your new prosthetic, which should work much better for you with any future raids.”

He handed Jin-Woo the leg made entirely of mana infused parts. It was a bit heavier than his usual one, but much sturdier as well. The doctor spoke up again while he looked it over.

“It’s made from rank A and B materials and should be able to handle any activity you use it for, combat or otherwise. We’d looked into creating something that was S rank but the wait would have been far longer since there are very few craftsmen able to create such complex and fine tuned pieces with materials as durable as those.”

After trying it on and making sure everything was sized correctly, he looked over at the doctor. “Do you need me to stay overnight for observation, or am I good to go today?”

“We have no reason to keep you here, and I’m sure you’re ready to be home again. I’ll have you discharged soon, But I want you to focus on resting.”

He smiled a little, “Honestly, all I want to do right now is eat and sleep.”

And that was exactly what he did. After laying around the house and not doing anything for a day or two he felt substantially better. But he couldn’t just lay around forever, he had stuff he needed to do. He emailed Baek that he would swing by to talk to him at the White Tiger Guild Processing Plant.

The processing plants were a key part in any magic equipment. Most weapons or heavy armor were actually made from monster bones. They looked almost metallic once shaped and polished, but the bright colors compared to steel would always give it away. Leather armor, for example, was one of the most common items for anyone that either needed light or cheaper armor. But your armor won’t do anything against spells or monsters unless it’s made from mana infused leather, and you can’t make that without lots of monster skin. No one was really sure what purpose the essence stones served for the monsters, but they served as a great power source, so those were the most valuable part of any monster body.

All together, it meant that in order for hunters to function, there was a lot of butchering, disposing, tanning, etc, and all of that smelled awful. Even a normal meat processing plant didn’t compare to the horrid smell that was monster guts. Because of that all the guilds’ plants were a fair bit outside the city, so he had to get a cab over with a lack of public transit  going out that way.

Once they arrived at the large gray building he tipped the driver well and walked over. Early on after his mother had gone into a coma he’d tried to get work at a plant similar to this one, if a bit smaller. It had been one of his many failed career attempts before becoming a full time hunter. There was little inside the building other than the main processing areas, split up between leather, bone, essence stones, and metal parts, which was what he was looking for at the moment.

As he looked around he could see how high end the facility was, all the tools and machines were reinforced with mana infused metal in order to handle powerful monsters. The White Tiger Guild was clearly successful, and like most higher rank guilds, their main income was from selling monster parts.

Following the sound of hammering metal he found the man he was looking for. Standing amongst countless pieces of armor they’d recovered strewn about the factory-like setting. Swords and breastplates were being polished and resized so that they could be sold, he didn’t see any of the damaged stuff so he guessed that was being kept elsewhere.

Baek was speaking to someone but turned and waved at Jin-Woo once he noticed him. Once he walked over to them he was introduced to a man who he assumed was a blacksmith, based on the fireproof apron and thick protective gloves. Baek had to speak at a shout to be heard over the clanging, but didn’t seem bothered by it.

“This here is Yang, he’s our top smith and is handling the armor you brought in. We were just discussing the monsters you asked us to set aside.”

The man grunted and showed them over to a pallet that had the monsters with a note stuck to it that said ‘do not touch!’ in bold letters. “Yeah, that red one’s a real good piece, it’s some tough shit and easily A rank armor. Been itching to get my hands on it, but the boss here said we had to wait before doing anything with it.”

Jin-Woo laughed, “I can believe that, he was certainly a tough one to beat.”

“Another thing about the red one, when we were bringing it in here we heard this bangin’ around inside.” He pulled out a rune stone from his apron and handed it to Sung Jin-Woo. “I have the appraisal skill, and if you break this you’ll get a telekinesis skill called Dominator’s Touch.”

He looked it over before glancing at Baek. “You’re fine with giving this to me? A rune stone like this would be worth a fortune.”

“It would, but that wouldn’t be honest or fair. The team you were with unanimously wanted you to have it. If you hadn’t been there we’d be talking to families about their dead loved ones, instead we’re looking at raking in unprecedented profits for anything below an S rank gate. It was an easy decision for me that you would get it.”

“Thank you. There are many people out there who wouldn’t have told me that they found this and just kept it a secret.” And with that he crushed it in his hand. He felt a rush of power through his body as the skill joined his other abilities. With a flick of his hand he pulled a stray helmet towards himself to test the magic. He quickly ducked down below the projectile that slammed into the wall, basically flattening the piece of armor.

“Uh… guess I should practice that a bit more before I use it around people. I really appreciate it though.”

Baek gave him a chuckle in response, amused by the antics. “So, what do you need in order to take their shadows?”

He stepped over to the red knight glaring down as the beaten enemy. “Just this. Arise.”

The stubborn knight fought him and refused to be brought back. “Stop fighting me. Arise. ” It felt a bit closer, but it still evaded him. “You spent your life guarding an empty throne, I’m giving you a chance to continue fighting, but for something meaningful. Stop protecting a king that’s long gone and follow me instead. So Arise!”

The knight’s shadow burst forth and swirled through the air before condensing into a tall and imposing undead soldier made of shadow and blue flame. He knelt before Jin-Woo, who smirked. “I will call you Igris.”

Yang and the other workers had all been staring at him. “Uh, do you always have to yell at them like that?”

“Not usually, but it seems to help if it fails on the first try. Now, let's see if we can’t get these mages. Arise. ”

Using all three tries he was able to get four of the five summoners, which he considered to be pretty good. “Hm, there’s one last thing I want to test before we move on. Mages, create a knight.”

There was a swirling purple energy and after a few moments a knight just like the ones he’d fought in the dungeon came rising out of it. Yang immediately began looking it over almost reverently.

“I’ve never seen a spell like this! Sure, there are summoner monsters that can create monsters that permanently stick around. But usually they make zombies or slimes, things we can’t really use, this is a full set of gear summoned from nothing. And you can create as many as you want?”

“Well, based on the amount of mana that took from them, I’d say between the four of them I could probably make ten to fifteen in a day at best. Any mana users I have seem to have reserves separate to mine, so it’s pretty limited.”

“Limited?! That’s not exactly a small amount.”

Baek nodded. “He has a point. From what we’ve seen and been told, these knights are about equivalent to a weak B rank or a powerful C rank. Summoning fifteen B rank hunters a day and adding them to a growing army is an amazing feat. It makes me glad you’re on our side.”

He pulled the new summons into his shadow and quickly realized that there might be an issue with using the knights. The suit of armor was his mage’s summon and was made of metal so he couldn’t store it like he did the others.

He willed his mages to dismiss the magic animating it, causing it to collapse into a heap. “You can keep this one since I don’t have a way to bring it with me.” He paused for a moment in thought. “Would you be a good person to talk to if I’m looking for better armor?”

The man grinned, “Oh, you are absolutely in the right place. What are you looking for?”

“Well, I don’t do much fighting myself, so how fast I move doesn’t really matter. And I guess I’d want it to be good against ranged attacks since that’s my main weakness as a summoner.”

“Hm, some heavy armor that specializes in stopping projectiles and magic blasts. That’s certainly doable.” He glanced at the red armor with a grin, “and I have the perfect idea for material.”

After that had been handled and Yang got his measurements, he started to leave with Baek at his side. As they made their way toward the exit, the large garage style doors opened so that the corpses from a recent raid could be brought in. From a quick glance it seemed like it came from an A rank dungeon. Just about everything they brought in was werewolf, weretiger, or some other human-animal hybrid. On the final cart was a massive manticore that must have been the boss of the dungeon.

“I just had an idea, and I feel a little foolish for not considering it earlier.”

The guild master looked over to him. “Oh?”

“Yeah, do you mind if I take the shadows from those A rank monsters?”

“Of course not, feel free.”

He nodded and got a bit closer to the corpses being brought in and moved off of their bulking carts. The workers that just entered the building looked over at him in shock as he pulled the shadows from the dead creatures. He only managed to get a couple of the beasts, including the boss, but it was still a proof of concept. Between the time already passed by and their higher rankings they were certainly more difficult than normal, but it was definitely easier than resurrecting Igris.

Soon after he went back to the White Tiger Guild with Baek to discuss business is more professional location.

“I think I’m going to take a break for a moment with raids until my new gear is done and I’m back in top shape. I’m not in a rush since money isn’t tight anymore, but if anything comes up that you need a hand with feel free to let me know.”

Bake smiled, this was exactly why he wanted to be kind and generous to Jin-Woo. He was new to being S-class and hadn’t processed just how important and influential he was. He had essentially just been given an open ended favor from the man that would become the world’s strongest hunter in his opinion.

“Of course, and just so you know, you’re free to stop by the plant whenever you’d like to collect shadows. We don’t lose anything from you taking them and I’m always happy to help out a fellow hunter.”

It wasn’t just to be manipulative and gain favor from this man that was nearly guaranteed to become nation ranked, though that was a benefit. He also wanted Sung to have the chance to get as strong as possible. It wasn’t hard to tell the gates were getting more and more common. Whatever was attacking their planet was ramping up its offensive and they were going to need every single defender possible.

Chapter Text

Jin Woo put in some extra effort to look decent after he woke up. Most of the time his appearance didn’t really matter when going out, since it was pretty foolish to get cleaned up before getting covered in monster blood during a raid. Today was different though, he wanted to make a good impression, but also not too fancy and come off as pretentious. Today was so important because it was time for parent teacher conferences at Jinah’s school.

He was always happy to do things like this, but it was still a harsh reminder that their parents were gone. He remembered the first time he had to do one of these conferences. An overwhelmed 19 year old that had only just graduated high school and suddenly had to take up the role of parent to his thirteen year old sister. He still remembered the looks of pity from the teachers that he’d had barely six months prior, but pity and well wishes didn’t actually help.

That first year in general was hard on him in ways he couldn’t really describe. Both him and Jinah were grieving their mother, but he couldn’t fall apart because Jinah needed him. On top of the emotional turmoil, figuring out how to pay the bills that were quickly piling up had left him floundering. He made it work though. Even if it was a bumpy road, he made it through and got them to a good and stable place.

He put on his spare prosthetic that was just made of normal metal and plastic. He was still getting used to the newer one and didn’t want to risk falling on his face because he forgot to account for the difference in weight. He finished getting ready and walked out of the apartment. It was her second to last year of high-school, so there would only be one more of these before…

Before what? Would she be going to college? Straight into the workforce? He hadn’t talked with her at all about what her plans were, did she have plans yet? He’d been so focused on just keeping them both afloat that it hadn’t crossed his mind. Well, college had been a pipe dream at best since they barely had money for groceries let alone an expensive education, so he doubted that it was part of any future plan.

Wait a second. He was rich now. He could send Jinah to the fanciest college around without any worries. He wasn’t used to them having excess money yet, but now he could give her all the opportunities she deserved. That still left the question of what she wanted to do with her life.

It left him feeling a little disoriented when he realized that he had no idea. Jinah never really talked about any sort of plans or desires. Was that normal? He remembered not wanting to worry about the future as a teenager, so maybe she just hadn’t thought about it either? Should he be pushing her to think about that? Maybe she had been thinking about it but hadn’t mentioned it to him? 

He thought a bit more about any hints she might have given to what her long term goals were, but couldn’t think of anything. The more he thought about it the more he realized that neither of them had a single plan or open desire that was more than a month or two in the future. The whole thing was a mess, but hopefully one that would be getting better now.

He’d given up on not catching attention, and also hated traffic, so he just rode one of his newest summons there. He’d gotten a griffin’s shadow from the processing plant, and it was a game changer to have a flying summon. Sure, people pointed and stared as he flew over the city on an undead griffin made of darkness, but he just ignored them, going over traffic instead of through it was absolutely worth it.

Within a few minutes he landed in the school parking lot and recalled the beast into his shadow before walking over to the front door. He ignored the hushed whispers that people shared as they made not so subtle glances at him.

He remembered how to get around the school and would have been able to get to the designated classroom without issue, however, the school seemed to have a different idea in mind. The principal himself was waiting for him at the entrance and tried to make small talk the entire way there. To be honest, he mostly ignored the man. The principal hadn’t tried to help them during the last four years, so it was frustrating that he suddenly wanted to do whatever he could now that they finally didn’t need it. They finally reached the classroom that they were using for these meetings and took a seat, the principal going his own way, with his sister and her teacher arriving soon after.

Jinah was her usual enthusiastic self when she came into the room. “Did you really fly your way here on a griffin?! There’s pictures of it all over the news.”

He gave her a sly grin. “I’m glad to hear that you’re doing so well in your classes.” Both women looked at him in confusion at his statement. “Well, surely you must be doing amazing to have the time to check social media during class.”

She suddenly went very still as both her brother and teacher looked at her with accusing eyes. “You know what. I think I’ll just be silent for the rest of this and maybe the rest of my life as well.”

He chuckled and turned to her teacher. “Now, how is she doing in classes? And please just be honest, the last thing I want is you to say what you think I want to hear just because I’m famous now.”

She nodded, looking a bit more relaxed. “Overall, she is doing well. There are a few subjects she falls a bit behind in, but she does well more often than not. I do have some worries about her remaining focused in class. As you pointed out, she tends to be on her phone when she shouldn’t be.”

They went back and forth, discussing her standing in each of her classes and what she could work on.

“Jinah truly is an intelligent girl, I think she’d easily be a solid A and B student if she wasn’t checking her phone or chatting during class. On her own she’s very studious, but as soon as Han Song-Yi is anywhere nearby that all seems to go out the window.”

He chuckled a little. “Yeah, I’m familiar with Song-Yi, they’ve been best friends for years now.” He paused in thought for a moment, “It is odd though, this issue hasn’t been brought up in previous years. Sure, she’s chatty and energetic, but not to the point it needed to be addressed.”

“Yes, well, Han Song-Yi is planning on dropping out and becoming a hunter. So she has completely stopped caring about school and I fear that her shift in attitude is impacting Jinah as well.”

He nodded and looked over to Jinah, “Is that true, she plans to be a hunter?”

“...Yeah. I don’t like it either but she just won’t listen.” He could hear the heartbreak in her voice. He knew Song-Yi was an E rank hunter, and his sister had seen exactly how stressful and dangerous it was to try and be an active hunter at that level.

The teacher sighed. “Unfortunately I have had a similar experience, she seems dead set on her plan. Which is one thing I was hoping to discuss with you, Jin-Woo. Would you be willing to talk to her as a hunter and at least convince her to finish school?”

“I can reach out to her sometime in the next few days, but I can’t promise she’ll listen.”

The teacher smiled. “I appreciate it. Was there anything else you wanted to discuss?”

“Um, yes actually. I was wondering about future plans, college prep, and things like that.”

The teacher brightened up, clearly this was a topic she had been looking forward to talking about. “Of course! I’d say she has a good chance to get into the colleges she’s been looking at and the classes she’s been taking will give her a good foundation for any pre-med program.”

“Oh. This is the first I’ve heard about wanting to go into the medical field. That’s great though. When did you start wanting to be a doctor?”

And it was great, medicine was a good field, he was just surprised that there was a plan with colleges and careers picked out already, maybe this was a recent idea? However, her teacher looked openly shocked that he hadn’t known about what was apparently an obvious passion of hers, but she kept any thoughts to herself and let Jinah answer.

She looked away and sort of mumbled. “I’ve wanted to be a doctor since mom fell asleep. I want to help keep other people from going through that.”

Four years. She’s had this dream, this goal, for four years and he never noticed. Sure, he’d been very busy and struggling to make it from week to week up until a couple months ago, but to have not noticed even a glimmer of this made him feel like he’d failed her in some way. He’d been so focused on supporting them that he’d missed key parts of her growing up. He tried not to blame himself, he had been a teenager doing his best, but that didn’t change that it happened.

They spoke a little bit more, clarifying some points and explaining the important steps between now and college. He should have been the one teaching Jinah about this sort of thing, not the other way around. Regardless of how deserved the feeling was, he felt like he wasn’t fit to be her guardian, and that wasn’t a new feeling in the slightest.

After finishing up they stepped out of the classroom and left the teacher behind so she could meet with the next people. They didn’t get very far down the hall before Jinah pulled him to the side.

“Um… I’m sorry I never told you I wanted to be a doctor. You just had so much on your plate already and I was worried about making things worse.”

He frowned a little. “Why would your future plans make things harder? Sure, I didn’t have a lot of free time to chat about things, but I really don’t know what I did to make you feel like you couldn’t talk to me.”

“I’m not stupid. Even if you tried to hide it from me as much as you could, I knew we were barely scraping by. I know you were willing to sacrifice so much to take care of me, to make the money needed to feed and house us both. If it weren’t for me you wouldn’t have needed to go on so many dangerous raids. And… I was scared that if you knew I wanted to be a doctor then you’d try and go on even more raids to make my dreams happen and put me through college.”

He wanted to refute it, to tell her he’d never do such a thing and that she could put her mind at ease, but she was right. Jin-Woo was willing to do just about anything to protect her and give her the best life he could. He wanted to tell her that it wasn’t her fault for him going on so many raids, the very thing that took his leg and nearly his life. It was the hard truth that if he didn’t need to support himself, a dependent, and their sick mother, he could have gotten a regular entry level job that wouldn’t require him to risk his life.

So he just pulled her close into a tight hug and failed to keep the tears at bay. “I’m so sorry.” He wasn’t sure what exactly he was apologizing for, but he meant it. He felt undeniably guilty for the fact that she had to hold such a burden and that she clearly blamed herself for things out of her control.

“It’s ok. I think it was easy to not talk about because neither of us had the energy to deal with anything more than a week out. I was already put on the spot so now it’s your turn, what do you actually want the future to look like? Not just work stuff, but like, life in general.”

“Damn, that’s a big question, sis. I might have to get back to you on that one.”

“Well duh, I didn’t need you to figure it out right this second. But I want you to be happy too and to live a nice life instead of just living to take care of me.”

He ruffled her hair, “I’ll think about it. Now, you better get back to class and I need to go home and do some paperwork.”

And think he most certainly did. He sat on their couch and stared at the ceiling in concentration. What did his ideal future look like? It was hard to break the habit of only focusing on getting your basic needs met and beginning to think about wants as well.

He tried to ponder the bigger questions. When Jinah moved out, would he want to stay where he was or move somewhere else? Would he want to stay in the city? Maybe buy a fancy house? Would he want to live alone or would he prefer a life with someone else in that fancy house with him? What kind of person would he want to share a life with?

He thought about those sorts of things for a while before coming to a few conclusions. He really liked the idea of a quieter life that wasn’t spent alone, and maybe have a family one day. Secondly, he didn’t want his loved ones to constantly worry about whether he would come back or not, like he did with his dad.

He had enough summons to be safe and enough money to be more than stable, so why would he continue to go on raids? Sure, he’d help out with an emergency if the country was in danger or something like that, but that was more about the world he lived on not being destroyed rather than something he wanted to do.

When he couldn’t think of a good reason to keep fighting he decided it probably meant that was a decision all on its own. After some more thinking and a few existential crises about who he wanted to be, he emailed the chairman explaining that he was ready to join the Korean Hunter’s Association.

Chapter Text

Sung Jin-Woo sat on their couch in the living room and was filling out some paperwork as his sister and her friend Han Song-Yi fluttered around the apartment. This had become a pretty normal occurrence since their move, with Song-Yi spending nearly every weekend and most afternoons in the apartment.

That said, he didn’t mind, they had more than enough space for company. Song-Yi was stubborn and a bit confrontational at times, which could be a little annoying. That said she was a good kid, she just had very strong feelings. She fit well within Jinah’s perpetual desire for chaos and sarcasm. However, as a parent (well, guardian, but he sure felt and acted like a parent) he was more than a little concerned.

He wasn’t positive of anything, but there were more and more little red flags popping up as time went on. Each thing on its own didn’t seem too bad, but was enough that he found himself paying more attention to it. Jin-Woo certainly didn’t know what the full picture was, but he was starting to put some pieces together and he didn’t particularly like what he saw.

Song-Yi wanted to be at their apartment as often as possible. (Was there a reason she didn’t want to be at home?)

Her parents had never called to check in when he had forgotten to update them on changed plans. (Did they not notice that her daughter had been gone two days instead of one? Did they notice and not care?)

At Jinah’s request they had a spare room that existed almost exclusively for Song-Yi. (Did Jinah just like sleepovers, or did she know something that made her feel like they needed to have space for her?)

Song-Yi planned on dropping out and becoming an E rank hunter, an incredibly dangerous job for a good, but not spectacular, amount of money. (Why did she need an income at 17?)

It felt wrong to assume anything, he’d met her parents many times and they seemed like lovely people. At the same time, it also felt wrong to assume that there wasn’t a problem at home. The whole thing was a mess, but she was a good kid and clearly needed some help with whatever was going on. The least he could do was talk to her and see if he could get more information.

He looked over at the two girls who were giggling over something that Jinah was showing Song-Yi on her phone. “Hey, Jinah, I know you’re having a good time with your friend, but I’m pretty sure you haven’t done your chores yet.”

She froze like a deer in headlights, looking into his eyes with the face of someone caught with their hand in the cookie jar. Her only real chores were keeping her room clean and taking care of food, both the grocery shopping and the cooking. Her taking over grocery shopping and cooking had been a huge help since cooking was a pain for leg reasons, and shopping was a pain because of being famous reasons.

“Well, um, there’s certainly a chance that some chores have yet to be completed. But I was definitely about to do them.”

He waved away her excuses. “Yeah, yeah. Since you forgot to go shopping yesterday and this morning, you’ll need to go out and do it now.”

She scampered off to grab the grocery list and the money that were both stuck to the fridge. “Alright Song, let’s go.”

“Nope, just go on your own. I wanted to chat with Song-Yi for a bit.”

Now they both looked like deer staring down oncoming traffic. “No one is in trouble, you don’t have to look so nervous.”

It didn’t take long for Jinah to rush out of the apartment and Song-Yi to sit in a nearby chair in the living room. She had almost immediately started fidgeting and seemed to be looking everywhere in the room except him.

He chuckled a little. “Song-Yi, you’ve known me for years, you really don’t have to look so nervous.”

“Oh, well, um, what did you wanna talk about?”

“Jinnah had mentioned you planned on becoming a hunter, so I figured I could offer some tips.”

It seemed counter intuitive, but he’d learned with Jinah the direct approach with teenagers was almost always the worst option. Telling them what to do or demanding information would just make them stubborn and dig their heels in deeper. The best way he’d found was to start by at least partially agreeing with them and have a casual conversation until you got more information. Then, once you know why they were making the bad choice you can try and fix the problem from there.

Sure, sometimes you have to fall back on ‘because I told you to’ when they don’t listen, but it’s not as effective in the long run. He genuinely hoped he’d be able to talk her out of it. Not only for Song’s sake, but for Jinah’s as well, the last thing she needed was losing another person to the dungeons.

She finally looked directly at him and had a cautious look in her eye. “...You’re not trying to talk me out of it?”

He sighed. “That would be pretty hypocritical of me wouldn’t it? I was an E rank hunter myself for four years starting at 19, so you’re a bit younger than I was, but not by much. It’s hard work, but if you’re seriously considering it, then I can probably give you some honest insight you won’t find elsewhere.”

“Oh! That would actually be really helpful.”

“First things first, what can you do? All I really know is that you’re E rank and don’t have any formal training.”

“I’m a mage type and my element is light.” She holds her hand out and makes a small glowing orb in her palm. “I can’t really do damage with it, but I can make it bright enough to blind for a second, so I figured I could use a knife or something.”

He examined the floating ball of light magic. “That’s great, you must be on the higher end of E to make a light orb that stable.”

She huffed in frustration. “You don’t have to patronize me, I’m a glorified flashlight.”

“I wasn’t joking. Sure, you wouldn’t be a great front line fighter, but you’d make decent money as a porter. Remember, electronics don’t work in dungeons, so having a porter that acts as a flashlight is a great alternative to carrying torches around.”

“Ugh, I want to be a hunter, not some pack mule. There’s no glory in carrying stuff around for the actual heroes.”

He sighed and shook his head. “I think you’re really overestimating how much glory there is in being a combat hunter either.”

“Huh? Of course there is? Hunters are these amazing heroes that keep us safe from monsters, wouldn’t you know that even more than most people do?”

“Maybe it sounds glorious when they talk about it in the news, but that doesn’t follow you into the dungeons. I’ve watched friends kill each other for loot and others leaving teammates behind as bait. There is no glamor or honor when you see someone beg for death while a monster eats them alive. There is no glory when your group of 17 hunters is cut down to five and you’ll never walk on two feet ever again.” He paused for a moment, hoping for his words to sink in. “If you walk this road, I think you’d make a fine hunter. Just don’t forget how deadly and unpredictable those dungeons are, and don’t be ashamed to take the safer jobs in support.”

“I guess that makes sense. Do you really think I could make it as a hunter like that?” Her eyes had such fragile hope in them. Of course that was all she heard from him, he swore that teenagers had the most selective hearing.

“I do. But I have a very important question for you. Why do you want to be a hunter? Because even if I think you could make it, you shouldn’t make that decision lightly. I speak from experience when I say that being an E ranker is one of the most dangerous options out there.”

She looked to the side nervously. “...I just need the money.”

His voice became something serious but soft. “Song-Yi, I need you to be honest with me. Is everything ok at home?”

And that was what it took for the facade to finally break. Tears began to stream down her face and she crumpled in on herself.

He knew she was a very tactile person so moved to the side a little and opened his arms. “Come’re, it’ll be alright.”

The crying girl fell into his arms and started sobbing even louder. It had clearly been building up for a while so he just let her get it out before trying to talk about whatever the problem was. He just rubbed her back, told her it would be all right, and accepted that he’d probably need to replace his shirt with how it had become an impromptu tissue.

After a few minutes, she wiped her face and sat back down, trying to compose herself. “I’m sorry, it’s just been hard lately. I guess, long story short, my parents are kicking me out next week when I turn 18.”

He nodded slowly, remaining calm since the last thing he wanted to do was spook her. “So you’re looking to be a hunter so you can take care of yourself.”

“Yeah… Not like I have a lot of options. Even if I wasn’t dropping out, I’m failing classes and probably wouldn’t have graduated anyways. Which is the main reason they’re kicking me to the curb. I’m lazy and stupid and they think forcing me to live in the ‘real world’ will make me get my act together.”

“Well they’re wrong. You are an amazing kid who will grow up into an amazing young woman. But you’re still just a kid who should be in school, not fighting for your life in magic caves. I want you to know, no matter what grades you get or how hard you work, you’ll always have a place here. I’m not letting you be homeless just because your parents are assholes.”

She wiped away the remaining tears and gave a weak smile, “I wanted to prove them wrong and show them I could fix it on my own without any help. Jinah’s been trying to convince me to tell you for months now, I was just so worried that you’d think less of me.”

“I would never do that to you or anyone else, asking for help doesn’t make someone a lesser person. I’m glad you told me. You can have the spare room you’ve been staying in, we can go and get your stuff whenever you want.”

She shook her head. “I don’t want it as charity. I don’t want to prove them right by only getting by because you pity me.”

“It’s not pity. You’ve been Jinah’s best friend for years and you’ve definitely become a part of this family. And we don’t leave family to fend for themselves. I’ve lost far too many friends and family to those dungeons, and if giving you a place to live is what it takes to keep you from joining that number, then that’s a miniscule price to pay.”

“Are you sure?”

“Absolutely. You can’t get rid of us that easily.”

There was another round of crying and hugging when Jinah came back into the apartment with a grocery bag in each hand. “Was I right?”

Song-Yi nodded, “Yeah, you were totally right, he went into complete ‘dad mode’ the moment I told him about what was going on. Apparently I’ll be living here now and wasn’t really given an option in it.”

Jinah gave a big smile. “Damn straight. You will be cared for, resistance is futile.”

He gave a smile as well, but it didn’t go beyond the surface. The comment about him acting like a dad just didn’t sit right with him. He understood that it wasn’t a bad quality to have, but he wished he hadn’t had to learn it. Those experiences and learned skills would always be a part of him now.

Which led him to essentially adopting his sister’s friend. He’s glad that they had the ability to give her a safe place, but there was a part of him, buried very deep, that was resentful he had to be the one to bear the responsibility. He didn’t blame Song-Yi for her situation and was happy to help, and he certainly didn’t blame Jinah for him having to raise her for the last four years. It was just tiring that these burdens were always his to carry.

He supposed it all boiled down to the fact that he never chose to be a dad. He wanted their actual dad to be there and for their mom to be awake again, but that wasn’t an option. In the end he had to accept that role whether he liked it or not and just try to make the best of it.

Chapter Text

Jin-Woo gently glided over the city on the back of his griffon and gave a contented sigh as he took in the beautiful view of Seoul from a few hundred feet in the air.

“That sight never gets old.” The griffon made a happy trill as if to agree with him, the shadow monster enjoying flying around the open air as well.

At first his flights over the city caused a bit of panic, with people thinking it was a dungeon break. Over the last month people seemed to have become accustomed to his undead transportation. He’d actually heard from Song-Yi that tour guides treated it like an attraction that they could point out to people, making gestures at the path in the sky he took to and from work.

Once they were directly over his destination he dismissed the griffon and let himself fall. With Dominator’s Touch he slowed his fall so he landed softly on the balcony outside his office at the Hunter’s Association. It had certainly taken a bit of practice, but he’d started getting a hang of the telekinesis he’d gotten from the rune stone. His movements with it looked more smooth and confident, and less like a newborn deer, as had been the case at the beginning.

He pulled a key from his pocket and opened the door to his office, conveniently on the twenty fifth floor so flying to and from work was easy. It felt a little redundant to lock a door that was over two hundred feet off the ground, but they had a policy about locking doors before leaving work since he had confidential paperwork in his office.

He didn’t wear his leg while flying, so he just floated over to his office chair and got everything set up for the day. He’d started at the KHA about two months earlier, and it had definitely been the right call. His schedule was consistent, the pay was good, and he hadn’t had a single person or creature try to kill him the entire time, which was fantastic for his mental health.

That didn’t mean he wasn’t still helping though. If anything, he was doing more to fight against the monsters than he ever did on the front lines. The two main projects he was doing at the moment were both based around setting up a system to use his summons to fight in dungeons without him having to be involved directly.

The one in place already was simple but effective and made great use of a loophole in order to get around a lot of red tape while those higher up bickered about logistics. In order to enter a gate you need at least eight hunters with their average ranks being equal or above the dungeon’s rank. However, if none of the hunters physically enter the gate, then there’s no problem.

In practice, this meant that a designated hunter would have a handful of high rank summons from Jin-Woo in their shadow and would go around bringing them to B rank gates and lower. It would be three shadows for fighting through the dungeon while the other two retrieved anything of value. It hadn’t been in place for long, and was definitely still in the testing phase, but it had already shown its worth. By handling the gates that needed extra support, they didn’t need to rely so much on criminal hunters and the prisoner program.

He leaned back in his chair and  looked over the report he’d gotten back from the most recent missions. He’d managed to get a job for Song Chi-Yul as well, who’d been happy to chauffeur his shadow monsters around from gate to gate.

Most C rank gates and up were claimed by strike teams and guilds since there was good money in them, but that left E and D gates neglected and at much higher risk of breaking. It barely took the summons ten minutes to clear those gates, so it was an easy way to reduce danger to the public. After about an hour he had set up the schedule for the next few days, prioritizing any gates that were either close to breaking or that they were having trouble hiring a team to handle. He had just finished filing the schedule when he heard a knock at his door.

“Come on in.”

In walked Song Chi-Yul, dressed in a crisp suit like everyone else in the KHA.

“Damn, I don’t think I’ll ever get used to seeing the two of us in these fancy business clothes instead of ratty hunter gear.”

Jin-Woo gave him a grin. “Yeah, it still weirds me out when I get called ‘sir’ by everyone here.”

“Don’t worry, I still think of you in my head as ‘that hunter kid’, so I think it evens out. What do you have for me today?”

“Well, old man, we’re looking pretty good here in Seoul, so you’ll be driving about an hour or two from here to help some towns that don’t have enough hunters and are barely staying ahead of dungeon breaks. You’ll be clearing 8 today, and 7 tomorrow. That should help get them caught up on active gates and give them some breathing room.”

“You got it boss. I’ll see you when I get back to drop off your shadows.”

That was one of the main reasons Chi-Yul was the perfect man for the job. He wasn’t unnerved or freaked out by having undead shadow beasts lurking underneath him for a few days. After letting those summons slip into his shadow the one armed hunter left his office and was on his way.

Right now that project took up most of his time. They needed a more efficient way to figure out which areas needed extra assistance, because right now it was hard to tell whether a place had a lot of active gates but had enough hunters on call to handle it, or if they were falling behind and were in danger of breaks. He also needed to have a meeting with the Hunter Union because they didn’t like the idea of his summons taking the jobs of the low rank hunters.

The second plan to use his summons was still mostly in the brainstorming phase. This one was based around the knights his shadow mages could summon. Right now those mages were stationed in a warehouse that was being used to store all the knights they summon. They already had over three hundred of these knights, but hadn’t determined the best way to use them.

He looked over one proposal he’d received from the Resource Division of the HA, they wanted to simply take the knights apart so that more hunters would have access to the B rank weapons and armor. It didn’t pass his attention that this proposal would also give the Resource division rights over how to use any gear that wasn’t sold. Which basically meant they wanted to melt it down for various purposes.

Mana infused metal was always in demand, and having a constant source of it was a clear advantage. Plus, even if the knights were decent in a fight, they didn’t even come close to his shadows in terms of power and ability to follow orders. The knights were very simple and could only follow the most basic of instructions, so their only real advantage was pure numbers.

He looked through the other emails, just about every single department had given a proposal on how they thought they should be used. A reserve army for defending the country against dungeon breaks and other magical catastrophes. Sending them to places in the world that had been lost to monsters as a form of aid to those countries. Selling them to guilds or other nations like a lifeless mercenary force, this one was disregarded immediately since it was way more nuanced and specific than what they could be commanded to do.

He sighed and held his head in his hands as he thought it through. The only thing he missed about the dungeons was that they were simple. All you had to do was fight and survive, which was something he’d become very familiar with. It was difficult and inherently life threatening, but simple. This was far more complicated, and he wasn’t exactly allowed to fight his way through a budget meeting, no matter how much he wanted to at times.

It was weird to work with other departments since he sort of functioned outside of them. He was given the title ‘Head of Special Projects’, which hadn’t been a position before he showed up. The only other official members of the Special Projects division were his secretary Jeong Soo, who helped out with paperwork and organizing meetings, and Song Chi-Yul. But he could work with any other division that either he needed or that needed his help with something. He knew that Jin-Chul was already trying to get the approval to use his summons as spies and finally start catching hunters that committed crimes within a dungeon.

The phone he’d been given for work suddenly rang, pulling his attention away from the paperwork in front of him. He was surprised to see it was Baek. He answered the call, curious to see what the guild master needed.

“Hello, this is Sung Jin-Woo.”

“I guess you really were serious when you said you planned on being a paper pusher.”

“What can I say? I like the slower pace. Anyways, what can I do for you?”

“Two things. First off, I just wanted to let you know that Yang finished up your fancy new armor so you can come pick it up whenever you’re free.”

“Wow, that’s impressive, I didn’t expect it to be done that quickly.”

“Well, he said didn’t have to do too much to it since it already had the attributes you wanted, he just needed to resize it to fit you.”

He checked his to-do list and moved a few things around. “I should be able to swing by tomorrow. Even if I’m not clearing dungeons, I feel better knowing I have gear if I need it.”

“I think most hunters are like that. The seasoned ones anyways. I know more than a few friends that can’t leave the house without their sword.”

He hummed in agreement. “Anyways, what’s the second thing?”

“I’ve got a bunch of newbies who’ve never seen the inside of a portal and barely know which end of the sword to stab with. I was hoping I could enlist you as a teacher. Nothing long term, I just want someone I trust when they go into a dungeon the first time, and it’ll just be a B rank.”

He was a little shocked that he counted as someone he trusted but didn’t comment on it. “I don’t know, I just got out of those dungeon crawls. Why me of all people? I’m sure you have plenty of decent hunters who can do it.”

“I usually handle it myself, but I’m out of the country next week and I’d rather not put off getting them started on training. Plus, capable fighters and capable teachers are very different things. I want you there because I know all of them will walk out alive, even if something unexpected happens. But the main reason is because you know what it’s like to be weak. You know what it’s like to be outgunned but come out of it anyways, you know how to teach them not to be overconfident just because they’re A rank hotshots.”

Jin-Woo thought about it for a moment before Baek made one last point. “It’ll also be a good chance for you to test out your new gear.”

He chuckled in response. “Alright, alright. You don’t have to try so hard to convince me. Just tell me when it is, I’ll make sure the new blood learns how to survive the gates.”

He smiled to himself after they hung up, he liked talking with Baek, he seemed like a nice guy. Jin-Woo was lost in thought for a moment when someone knocked on his door, one of the secretaries sticking her head inside. “Mr. Jin-Woo, the representative from the Hunter’s Union is here if you want me to send him in?”

He groaned internally but gave her a nod. “Thanks Jeong.”

Jin-Woo could admit he was exhausted when he got home. He was fine physically, but after spending the full day thinking and working through hunter bureaucracy he was ready to be done.

He’d gotten his wheelchair from Golem once he got back to the apartment complex and wheeled himself through the halls, not feeling like putting in the effort of walking while he was home. He paused for a second when he went inside. He’d asked Song-Yi to sweep the floors today, and they were very much not swept. 

Chores were split amongst everyone in the house. And now that she’d been here a few weeks she was part of that too. He felt it was an important part of making it clear she was part of the household and not just some freeloader passing through. Jinah was in charge of shopping and cooking, Jin-Woo handled cleaning the bathroom and the living room, and Song-Yi was supposed to do the dishes and sweep the floors. On top of that everyone was responsible for keeping their room clean.

He’d already had some concerns with Song-Yi doing her chores because he was pretty certain that Jinah had been doing the dishes for her the last few days to cover for her. It wasn’t a huge deal, but he’d have to talk to her. He was happy to have her be a part of their little family, but it was a team effort where everyone contributed.

He wheeled over to her room and knocked on her door.

“Yeah?”

“Hey, can we chat for a few minutes?”

He heard shuffling for a few seconds before the door opened. What he saw inside was messy to the point he was at least a little alarmed. There was trash on the floor right next to the trash can and her laundry, both clean and dirty, was just in a pile in front of her dresser. What made this stand out was the fact that it was clean a week ago before he instituted chores.

But what he couldn’t figure out was why. Why would she suddenly be obstinate over something fairly insignificant? Did she hate chores and was doing some sort of protest? Was she just a messy person who had hidden it the first couple of weeks? He’d sort of discounted anything her parents had said since they were awful, but he was quickly beginning to have concerns that she was a lazy and messy person. He wouldn’t kick her out like they did, but it would certainly need to be addressed.

His eyes shifted from the room back to Song-Yi, and he noticed something very surprising. She was watching him with a calculating intensity, it was the same look hunters had when they saw something they didn’t recognize. It was the look of someone trying to figure out how dangerous something is and how you should proceed.

She was running a risk assessment on him.

He really had no idea what was going on here or what was going through her head. Why was she looking at him like a potential threat? Had he done something upsetting and this was an act of defiance?

They were both silent for a while as she just stared at him and he thought through this unexpected situation, her eyes quickly becoming almost desperate. “Just get it over already!”

He didn’t know what he was expecting, but it wasn’t that. “Uh, get what over already?”

“I don’t know! Yell at me! Throw things! Slap me around! I can’t handle waiting for the shoe to drop so just do it!”

Her eyes were squeezed shut and her hands white knuckled, tensed into tight fists at her sides, just waiting for him to lash out. He saw Jinah come out of her room at the sound of yelling, but he gave her a look so she’d go back. This was clearly something that needed to be worked out and Jinah intervening would just make that harder.

He finally put the pieces together to have a general idea of what was going on. She was used to living in an awful home situation and didn’t trust that she was actually safe. But waiting for things to inevitably get bad had apparently worn her down and now she was trying to force his hand. Plus, she’d never seen him angry. So maybe this was some sort of test so that she’d know how he responded to being provoked?

Fuck, he didn’t have time to think this over. He needed to respond and deal with this now.

“Song, I’m not going to hit you or shout or anything like that. Let’s go sit on the couch for a bit and talk this out, because this has clearly been on your mind for a while.”

She just gave a stiff nod but followed him into the living room, sitting on the couch while he moved from his wheelchair to the comfy armchair they had.

To be honest he had no clue what he was doing, ‘how to convince the teen you took in that you weren’t like her abusive parents’ wasn’t a book he’d read. So he’d just have to wing this and hope for the best.

“I don’t want to push and make you feel uncomfortable or unsafe, but from what you were saying I’m going to guess your parents were violent with you.”

Her eyes were glued firmly on the floor. “Only when I did something wrong.”

Okay, so it seemed like she thought of herself as the reason for the abuse. Meaning she thought it would follow wherever she went. Fuck. This was such an absolute mess.

“That’s not an excuse. They shouldn’t have hurt you at all.” He paused for a moment as he thought of something. “Wouldn’t Jinah have told you if living here wasn’t safe?”

She just shrugged. “I didn’t tell her most of what happened at my house.”

He supposed he could see the logic, as horrible as it was. From her perspective every family probably looked like it was a facade since hers was.

“Well, I can assure you that there is no hitting or any other violence in this house. Same thing with shouting at each other or breaking things on purpose.”

She nodded but looked like she barely believed him.

“I get that it will take a while to adjust, but I hope that over time you’ll learn to trust that this is a safe place.”

It seemed like that was all he was going to get from her tonight so he just sighed. “And if I ever do or say something hurtful, please tell me, because I can just about guarantee it won’t be on purpose.” He paused. “Jinah, you can come out now, I know you’ve been eavesdropping.”

She squeaked and stepped out from around the corner. He floated to his room and gave the two some space. Jin-Woo collapsed onto his bed. He had absolutely no idea what to do in this situation. Maybe he could do some research? He felt very out of his depth, but he supposed he’d felt that way before with Jinah, and he’d figured that out. For the moment all he had to do was make Song-Yi feel as safe as possible while resisting the urge to send shadow soldiers after her parents.

Chapter Text

Sung Jin-Woo stood with his back to the swirling blue vortex. He felt an odd mix of hesitance and anticipation. He’d had so many bad experiences in gates, and every logical part of his brain wanted him to stay far away from them. At the same time, he could not deny that there was another part of him that loved the thrill of the fight, charging into an interdimensional portal to slay whatever was on the other side.

He was in his full battle gear, the blood red armor gleaming under the afternoon sun. It really was a masterpiece of armor that was well deserving of its S rank classification. Not only had it been resized, but Yang had added quite a bit to the already impressive magical effects. As he moved back and forth, getting a feel for the extra weight, he was amazed by how much stronger it made him feel. Sure, he’d been told everything the armor did, but it was another thing to feel the added strength, stamina, perception, speed, and durability.

He hadn’t put on his helmet yet since he didn’t want to scare off the newbies right away. Speaking of which, he saw the van pull up with the ten freshly awakened hunters. There was also a well dressed woman that had driven them there and seemed to be their manager of sorts.

“Hello everyone, my name is Sung Jin-Woo. As I’m sure you were informed, I’ll be leading this raid today and teaching you how to handle a dungeon. I know you’ve already had plenty of training and practice with the guild, but that’s all theoretical, this will be purely practical.”

Their looks seemed to vary between awe and fear, with a few looking dismissive, as if they felt like this sort of training was beneath them. At first he’d been hesitant to take on the teaching role, he’d never been great at talking to strangers, especially a group of them. But after a bit of thinking he figured it wouldn’t be awful and he’d be able to help them be as prepared as one could be.

“I want you all to introduce yourselves, then head in.”

Some of them seemed relatively prepared and he wasn’t too worried, but there were five that he had some concerns about.

There was Dang, a fighter in his late teens wielding a sword and shield, falling into the category of thinking he was above this. He seemed angry, like he couldn’t think about anything other than the upcoming fight, and the used but clearly well taken care of sword told the story of him wanting vengeance for whoever used the sword before him. Either that or he was reading too far into it and the kid just had issues.

Han was a spell caster that specialized in fire, which was a common magical affinity but still useful. She looked frightened, but he couldn’t tell if it was of him or the portal behind him. It was healthy and sane to be scared of dungeons, but too scared and you freeze up, which can and will get someone killed.

Pung and Cho were in their thirties and seemed to already know each other and were enthusiastic to fight side by side, one a tank and the other a healer. He’d have to keep an eye on that since that could easily make a situation where Cho directed his healing towards his friend(lover?) more than the others in the group.

Finally, there was Bin, who immediately stood out as a people pleaser and a martyr. A tank with a shield/spear combo and seemed a bit too eager to be relied on and keep everyone else safe. It could just be jitters and excitement for the first raid, but he was worried it would turn into avoidable self sacrifice.

He filed all of that away for later as he made everyone get into formation. At a few raised eyebrows he answered the unasked question. “I know most parties only get into formation once an enemy has been spotted, but that’s not how I do things. I’ve been in multiple dungeons where you’re attacked before you can even get the entire team through the gate, it’s not common, but you should still be prepared for it.”

Most nodded, Dang rolled his eyes, but they did what he asked. “Now, before we go in there’s one last thing I need to make clear in case you weren’t told already. If all goes well I won’t be fighting any monsters for you. I’ll only intervene if you’re on the verge of being killed or permanently injured. Otherwise I’ll just be giving advice and making sure you don’t do anything stupid.”

With that they walked into the swirling portal, out into a snow covered field. The moment he saw how open the area was he already knew that the gate behind him had turned red. This assumption was only increased by the other hunters shouting in alarm that the gate had sealed.

He considered for a moment sending out about fifty of his summons and just wiping out every monster here before anyone got hurt. Most of his summons were A rank dungeon bosses by this point and wouldn’t have any issue with whatever this dungeon had to throw at them. It probably wouldn’t take more than an hour if he did it that way.

He sighed. But that wouldn’t teach them anything would it? They’d still be just as naive and inexperienced when they went into the next dungeon. Well, just in case they needed to make a quick exit he sent out his griffon, the shadow monster shooting up into the sky to survey the area and look for the boss.

“Rule number one about dungeons, never assume anything. Everything beyond the gate will act unexpectedly and you have to be prepared for anything, no matter how unlikely.” He looked at the frightened hunters, about half of them his age or older, but at that moment they seemed more like children who got lost in the woods. It reminded him of his first raid, how confusing and alarming everything was.

“What we’re in right now is called a red-gate. It won’t open until one of three things happens, we kill the boss, the monsters kill us, or the dungeon breaks. These gates are far larger and can be any terrain rather than mostly just caves. Keep in mind, time is dilated here, so it will take a little over 150 days in our time for the dungeon to break.”

He caught a flesh of movement in the corner of his eye and pulled forth a summons to take a defensive position. A massive millipede burst from his shadow and curved around the group, blocking dozens of frozen arrows with its body. One arced over the creature but he grabbed it out of the air before it could strike. One trick the armor had was ‘blade catcher’, making the palms of his hands all but invincible, letting him stop weapon attacks by grabbing them.

They all looked sufficiently horrified, which hopefully meant they understood the situation. However, he remained calm and did his best to talk them through the situation.

“We’re in a large winter environment faced by ice elves, which are skilled long range fighters. We’ll be here for an extended but unknown amount of time. The elves have retreated for now since those were only scouts. There’s open snow fields to our East, dense forest that probably houses the elves to the Northwest, and more sparse forest to the Southwest, which is home to snow bears based on those tree markings.”

He leaned back against the giant insect and looked at the stunned hunters through his helmet. “Well? What’s the call? Where do you think we should go?”

Han raised her hand nervously. “Um, since you’re the leader shouldn’t you decide that?”

“That’s a good point. But I won’t be your leader forever, so you need to know how to make these decisions. Deciding where it’s best to go in a dungeon is a choice you’ll have every single time, so this is good practice.”

Dang gave his answer, but without politely raising his hand and with an angry snarl. “Ugh, this is so obvious. We go South East because we need food and shelter, clearing out a snow bear cave will give us both.” Huh, he was expecting a call to charge directly into ice elf territory and kill them as soon as possible. Maybe there was potential under all that rage.

Jin-Woo just nodded, indicating that it was a fine plan and retrieved the giant millipede that was acting as a barrier so that they could begin moving deeper into the dungeon. It wasn’t long before his griffon had spotted the main force of ice elves, along with their boss. He had plenty of food on him and they had both plentiful snow and a fire mage, so they would be fine for resources even in the worst scenario. He’d have the griffon keep an eye on them so there weren’t surprises, but he didn’t plan on telling them where enemies were or giving them any extra supplies unless it was an emergency or they did something extra stupid.

Speaking of intervening before they did something stupid, he looked over and Han about to use a weak fire spell to warm up Pung and Cho.

He slapped her hand upward, causing a thin ribbon of fire to drift harmlessly up into the air. “Hey! Stop that before you get them killed!”

Han looked over at him, frightened and ashamed. “What?! I was only going to do a minor spell, it wouldn’t have been enough to do more than warm them up.”

“It wasn’t the fire that would have killed them, it’s the hypothermia. If you warm them up, you’re also warming up their armor and the snow under them. And unless they have waterproof platemail, those metal boots would have been filled with water and frozen within a few minutes.”

“Oh. I-I’m sorry. I never thought about that.”

“That’s why I’m here, because I’ve either seen or made all the mistakes you could imagine. Unless you’re very skilled at fire magic or in a dry place, you risk frostbite or worse, and that sort of thing can get you killed out here.”

The group became very somber, but it was an important lesson. Gates weren’t fun or glamorous, and they had to realize that every decision was life or death before they found that out the hard way.

They made their way into the forest, the trees far enough apart that the massive bears would be able to pass through. More and more trees had claw marks in them to indicate that they were entering a bear’s territory. Or maybe a group of bears? He wasn’t positive how much of regular bear behavior passed over to snow bears. Bears tended to be more solitary, but he remembers hearing snow bears had packs.

That question was answered when they heard a chorus or roars moments after entering a large clearing around a cave. Everyone got into formation, they had clearly been trained enough outside the gates to easily fall into position. An oversized bear came charging towards them and was quickly met by blasts of magic before crashing into the two shields of their tanks. Coming in from both flanks were the close range attackers that finished off the beast with a few slashes.

It was a textbook perfect monster slaying. It wouldn’t work all the time, but it was good to have foundations to fall back on. Hearing the dying roar of the bear, the rest of the pack came barreling out towards them. This was another typical case, getting attacked by swarms was pretty standard, but he wanted to see how they would react when each member of the swarm was fairly powerful on its own too.

One member peeled off from the group and sprinted to the side, purposefully drawing their attention. He could admit he was bad at names and only remembered the problematic hunters, but this one was an assassin type that specialized in speed over stealth. The ranged fighters pelted the bears with attacks while they were focused on the runner.

He sighed, knowing he’d probably have to intervene soon. This strategy only worked in video games or with very specific monsters. Sure, in theory they’ll keep following the runner because they're closest, but in reality a creature will attack the thing that is causing it pain, not just what’s close. The other issue is that monsters are practiced hunters, they don’t follow in a tight swarm, they spread out and surround like wolves chasing a deer.

Almost all the bears ignored the runner and charged at the main group that had attacked them with magical blasts. He just kept watching for now, curious if they’d be able to salvage this. The runner dodged their pursuers and dashed back into formation with honestly impressive acrobatics.

He noticed that Han was firing way too many blasts, depleting her mana rapidly as she peppered the enemy with powerful spheres of flame. She single handedly wiped out nearly a third of them but her eyes spoke of fear and desperation, not strategy. All logical plans had gone out the window in the face of bloodthirsty monsters leaving her panicked.

“Han! Conserve your mana, don’t spend it all at once.”

She looked back at him with wide eyes. Yeah, he’d have to have a serious talk with her about if hunting was really what she wanted to do. As it stood now, either she’d find her courage or die in some nameless cave.

His eyes scanned over the rest to see if there were any other issues as they worked their way through the horde of bears. It was sort of like doing a mental checklist.

Dang going apeshit on these bears but still in formation: Check

Targeted ranged attacks to provide support: Check

The tanks holding their ground and keeping the enemy away from the others: Check

One of their support mages on the front lines: Check

Wait. Why the fuck was a support mage on the front line?!

Pung and Cho were standing back to back and fighting bears as a team. He couldn’t deny that they were skilled, they’d clearly trained together and were completely in sync together. Cho would give his friend(?) buffs and slash into openings with his rapier. At the same time Pung covered him and delivered heavy blows with her bloodied morningstar. It was almost like a dance as they spun around each other and were quickly creating a circle of bear corpses around them.

He saw them look longingly into each other's eyes for a brief moment and that confirmed more than he ever wanted to know. From their expressions it was clear they loved each other dearly and that they were aroused by the act of killing monsters together. He’d heard from some hunter friends that lots of hunters hooked up after raids to burn off the adrenaline in other ways, he didn’t get it personally but it wasn’t his business what they did after they finished the raid.

However, it most certainly was his business what they were doing during the raid. While they had been doing their romantic battle dance the formation had started to fall apart. They had two tanks and two healers, which meant half of their defense and support had just broken off and left everyone else to flounder as they got further and further from the others.

A werewolf burst from their other healer’s shadow moments before she was mauled by the charging bear that had been able to reach her uncontested. He also telekinetically yanked the two back to the main group and sent a wave of shadow summons to finish off the last remaining bears, including the largest one that was well above the group’s skill level.

“This is a dungeon not a date, don’t forget you have eight other teammates. If you’d pulled that without me here,” He gestured at the frazzled looking healer girl “she would be dead right now.”

He sighed, seeing how ashamed and horrified they looked. “Your technique was good and your teamwork together was impressive, but you can’t ignore the rest of the group. Now, let’s make shelter in the cave and for your final lesson of the day I’m going to teach you how to prepare monster meat.”

Chapter Text

Sung Jin-Woo floated a few inches above the snow as they traveled back in the direction of the gate. Everyone else was on the back of Tank, his newest summon that was a massive bear, large enough to easily carry the entire team. He’d been planning not to assist them with his summons outside of an emergency, but he’d decided they wouldn’t really lose anything in terms of experience if they didn’t have to march through the snow a second time. 

Even though the cave was better for shelter it would quickly turn into a deadly bottleneck situation if the elves attacked them there. Moving to a wide open field well out of range from the tree line was their best bet for fighting ice elves. He figured they’d have their fight soon since he’d spotted a few ice elf scouts that had run off and would likely be back with the rest.

Han wrung her hands nervously. “Won’t they just wait us out? They are way more suited to survive out here than we are.”

“If our enemy was human then you would be correct, but monsters are a lot more single minded. They have little patience and even less self preservation, but that makes them predictable. If we stay where we can be found and more easily defend ourselves, then we just need to let them come to us.”

They stayed out in the snow field for about half an hour and the boss was getting close when he felt it. He hadn’t experienced its presence beforehand, but as he felt the cold aura filled with bloodlust and power, he knew the newby hunters wouldn’t last a minute against this kind of monster.

“Everyone behind me! The dungeon boss is likely an S rank monster. Stay back and let me handle this.”

Bin, the self sacrificing tank spoke up. “Are you sure you’ll be fine on your own? We can back you up!”

“This isn’t a debate! Tank, get them back to the gate!”

The giant bear began sprinting away with the hunters to get them to safety. Not that anywhere in a dungeon was ‘safe’.

Jin-Woo let his aura flare to draw in the enemy. It was a universal symbol, sort of like a gorilla hitting its chest or a bear standing on its back legs. It was a challenge, daring the enemy to attack him. It was a simple way to force them out of hiding because any prideful creature, monster or otherwise, wouldn’t let such a challenge stand uncontested in its own territory.

He briefly brought out Golem so he could retrieve some weapons for the upcoming fight. Grabbing a few knives he threw them into the snow far in the distance, near the treeline where the elves would be approaching from.

After a minute or so, a large group of ice elves suddenly stalked into the clearing, most of them on mounts of some sort, there were probably about fifty in total. He could immediately tell who the leader was, standing in front with the strongest presence he’d sensed from a monster since the double dungeon.

They came to a stop as the head elf seemed to be considering him, looking as if Jin-Woo was a particularly interesting puzzle. The elf spoke, but the wispy language didn’t have any meaning to him. He didn’t know what was going on, but he took their distraction as an opportunity to attack.

He suddenly yanked the knives he’d placed back towards him with his telekinesis, the blades striking the elves from behind. He was able to get three elves down before they’d had time to realize what was happening, and to add to their confusion and disorganization he called out the magic word.

“Arise.”

Two of the elves suddenly rose from the ground as shadowy specters, ready to attack their brethren, further breaking up the enemy’s formation. But something very odd happened the moment he had gained control over the souls of the dead monsters. He understood them.

Not his summons specifically, he could understand what all the elves were saying to each other, with his attention immediately drawn to the leader.

He looked interested but not alarmed by the sudden presence of the shadow soldiers. “I was right. You’re no human. I could tell from the moment I saw you that you weren’t really one of them because the voice does not demand that I kill you.”

Jin-Woo would like to say he responded in a logical and well thought out way, but that would be a lie. In the face of the first recorded communication between humans and monsters, he spoke the very intelligent words of “What the actual fuck?”

The ice elf tilted his head in question. “I’m not sure I understand. What are you asking, and why are you among these humans?”

“I think you have me mistaken for someone else. I’m definitely a human, born a human, raised a human, human all the way through.”

All of the elves began laughing very loudly, though the rest of the elves seemed to be less laughing at the joke and more just laughing because they were insane. “That is a good joke, as if anyone other than the Ashborn could do what you do. There is only one being in all of the realms that controls the shadows of the dead, and he is certainly not a mere mortal.”

The elf then stared at him with a calculating eye. “Perhaps you were a human once. I have only borne witness to the Ashborn once, and you are far too weak to be even a vessel for his power. If I were to guess you hold a shard of his being, a small portion of the Ashborn merging with a human would create a hybrid of sorts.”

He nodded slowly, doing his best to remain composed in the face of this insanity. “Who is this ‘Ashborn’ person?”

“He is no ‘person’. He is death and he is undeath. He is the holder and wielder of souls, the only being that can bring them back into this realm. He is the ruler of shadows and darkness. He is the only being to ever hold the titles of both Monarch and Ruler. Does that answer your question?”

“Not really, but it was helpful I guess. I agree that I’m not this ‘Ashborn’, so you can just call me Sung Jin-Woo, since that’s my name.”

“I see. I am Baruka, a general in the Frost Monarch’s army. I have no quarrel with you, will you join us to destroy the humans?”

“What? No! Why do you want to kill humans?”

The elf began to laugh once more. “You really don’t know what you’re up against do you? We don’t care about humans in the slightest, but we must kill them to satiate the crystals placed within our bodies. We were captured in our war against the Rulers and now are forced to fight against your people until one of us is wiped out.”

He felt like his world was turned upside down. These monsters weren’t actually their enemy, just another victim of these ‘Rulers’, whoever they are. He needed a way to free them from this, but his options were incredibly limited within the gate.

He looked Baruka in the ice blue eyes. “What if I free you from their control?”

The elf looked at him with a condescending smirk. “And how would you do that? Do you really believe we haven’t tried everything possible to be free? The only way to escape them is to die- Oh, I believe I understand your offer now, but that wouldn’t be freedom, just changing owners.”

He had to sell this. They finally had access to a source of information on what the gates were and what was causing them. They needed him. Every other monster seemed to have lost their minds to varying degrees, even among these ice elves Baruka seemed to be the only one that was still able to think and speak clearly on the past.

Sure, he could try to kill and summon him without consent, but even A class corpses had a low chance of success that was worse the more they fought him. With an S rank dungeon boss he highly doubted he could pull it off if he resisted and he couldn’t take a gamble like that on someone this important.

“You’re right. I can’t set you free, but I can give you something you’ll never get while you’re fighting humans on behalf of these Rulers. I can give you vengeance. Stand by my side as a shadow and I’ll give you the chance to fight back against them. Help us to defeat them.”

He locked eyes with Jin-Woo, searching for any sign of deception. “You really plan to take on the Rulers?”

“They have attacked our home and I won’t let that stand. They will pay for what they’ve done.”

The elf was silent in thought for a minute or so. “Understood. I have two conditions. First, you shall only get my soul, my comrades shall be allowed to pass on to the void. Their minds were not strong enough to hold up against the crystal’s influence and they deserve to finally find rest. Secondly, I will not just roll over for you, you must kill us in combat. If you cannot defeat us then there’s no point in thinking you stand a chance against them.”

He nodded, that made enough sense. “I accept your terms.” He raised a hand and pointed at the ice elves, “Kill them all.” And with that sixty A rank monsters rose from his shadow and charged forward.

His blades flew through the air, cutting down his opponents while they were locked in combat with the various beasts that had come forth. Whenever an elf fell he would call them back to fight for him, slowly causing them to outnumber the enemy more and more.

It didn’t take long before most of the elves had fallen. He’d used a good chunk of his mana already, but he still had about half left since his newer summons needed far less healing than any monsters he’d used in the past.

Baruka however was still standing his ground, a wave of ice pushing back his shadows and forcing many to require regeneration. He pointed at Jin-Woo. “Are you so weak that you will stand back and keep your hands clean? Are you so easily frightened?”

Jin-Woo couldn’t let that stand. Not because of his own pride though, if this had been any other fight then he would ignore the taunt and just let his enemy be worn down by waves of his unkillable monsters. But this wasn’t a fight, not really, this was an audition. He needed to convince this man that he could give him the vengeance he so desired. He would need to demonstrate the strength and skill that would be needed to face these ‘Rulers’.

So he flew directly up into the air, at least a few hundred feet and looked down at the fight below.

“You coward! Is this how you plan to fight?! By running away whenever you’re in danger?!”

This is exactly how he planned to fight, and it was how he would win.

He let himself start to fall, using his telekinesis to accelerate himself toward the ground even faster. It wasn’t near the fight though, if he kept his course he’d slam into an open field of snow away from any part of the battle.

He wasn’t so self absorbed or conceited to think that he was stronger than he actually was. Sung Jin-Woo was a cripple that chose office work over battles. His powers made him an excellent leader, a general of an undead army, but he was pathetic physically when compared to the other S rank hunters. Even A rank hunters could easily beat him if he didn’t have his summons.

His strength came from the fact that he knew that. He knew he was weak, so he would never fight fair or honorably. He would win with cheap tricks and clever ideas that would give him whatever advantage he could get his hands on. That’s what he needed to show Baruka. That he was a man that knew how to win even when he was severely outmatched.

The moment he was about to collide with the ground he activated Shadow Swap on the manticore that was fighting Baruka. The elf’s eyes went wide with shock as Jin-Woo suddenly appeared in front of him.

But he didn’t just appear, he’d tested it before and found that he maintained any current momentum when swapping. This meant when he appeared less than three feet away he was already flying into him at nearly two hundred miles an hour.

Before Baruka even had a chance to react to the teleportation skill, he’d already been slammed into by the cannonball that was Jin-Woo in S rank armor. Baruka just stared at him in shock before slowly looking down at the arm buried in his chest. Jin-Woo’s razor sharp claws had pierced his body and were now holding the man’s heart in a hand that had burst out of his back.

Baruka looked back up at him, locking eyes.

“I look forward to fighting by your side.”

And with that, he collapsed against the hunter, marking the dungeon as cleared and allowing the gate to open once more. The last of the elves were easily defeated and he dismissed any shadow elves to the void as promised. He pulled his arm out from the monster’s chest cavity and spoke a single word.

“Arise.”

Baruka’s shadow rose from his corpse without any fight or hesitation. This creature wanted revenge, and Jin-Woo was the only way he could get it. This meant he now had his first S rank summons, far stronger than the rest and a treasure trove of priceless information.

The newbie hunters were brought back to the gate by Tank, quickly followed by Jin-Woo and a procession of summons carrying anything of value, excluding elf corpses, which he felt deserved far better than being made into leather.

He was in a daze as the adrenaline began to recede and he walked over to Jin-chul who was waiting for him. Luckily his friend seemed to quickly comprehend what was going on and led him into his car to drive him home.

The moment he sat down he pulled off his helmet and began to weep on his friend’s shoulder.

“The monsters… they aren’t our enemies, they aren’t even monsters. They’re just POWs that are forced to attack us. Every single ‘monster’ we’ve killed the last ten years was innocent.”

Jin-Chul didn’t really understand, but he didn’t need to. He just consoled him and listened to his babbling sobs about everything he’d learned in the dungeon. He could get real information later, right now he just needed to support his friend.

Chapter Text

Normally bureaucracy moves incredibly slowly by its very nature, but there is one clear exemption. The hunter organizations across the world. The very basis of dealing with gates was the knowledge that anything could happen at any time and that you needed to be ready to change at a moment’s notice. B gates could turn out to be A gates, A gates could turn out to be completely empty except for a single S rank dungeon boss that was producing the entirety of the magical pressense. Nothing could be guaranteed, even the most basic rules of gates would change on a dime.

There were a few countries that refused to be flexible and tried to maintain a very rigid structure for how they dealt with gates. Those countries typically didn’t exist anymore after being overrun by waves of monsters. That was a large part of why there wasn’t a western United States anymore. They tried to rely on procedure and red tape for how to face the growing problem of monsters attacking, but when their system was put to the test it failed to react properly and was destroyed under the feet of a dragon that didn’t care about the patterns it wasn’t following.

So when the Korean Hunter’s Association announced to the other nations that they had updated information on the origins of gates and the nature of the monsters they had a conference call set up with every nation of the world within the day.

Go Gunhee stood at a podium with over a thousand different agencies and top tier guilds watching from around the world. “Hello everyone, thank you for coming to this impromptu meeting. Normally this would be saved for the larger hunter conference but we have discovered things which could and should change the very way we address the gates.”

He took a pause, giving a moment for the various translators time to catch up. “As I’m sure most of you are aware, our nation has access to a hunter with the ability to raise the dead into summons that are completely loyal to him. From what we’ve tested his ability only works on beings that had mana, such as monsters and hunters, we also knew that the more powerful being the more intelligence is retained upon resurrection.

“This leads us to how we suddenly acquired more information today than we have in the last ten years. By defeating and bringing back an S ranked ice elf, we now have a monster that we can speak to and is incapable of lying to us.”

A wave of questions came forth but he simply raised a hand to get them to pause. “If you have questions about the ability itself, that can be addressed later, but that is not what this meeting is about. I will give you the basics of what we learned and then hand this meeting over to Sung Jin-Woo himself to answer more specific questions. Now, I’m not saying you have to believe everything we tell you, because much of it is hard to believe, but at least listen and take it seriously so that we can be better prepared going forward.”

He took a deep breath and got ready to give them the magical history lesson he’d gotten just a few hours earlier.

“As many have theorized, we are not the only reality in existence. These gates are links to other universes and the name of the creatures that we have been facing is best translated to mean ‘Denizens of Chaos’. These are not mindless beasts but members of an expansive society that has the ability to move between realities.”

“These beings do not attack us of our own accord. There was a war between these ‘Denizens of Chaos’ and another race known as the ‘Rulers’. Upon their victory the Rulers captured a large portion of their forces, experimented on them, and implanted them with the essence stones, which tamper with the mind and force obedience. The main order we know of that all captured Denizens received is a command to kill humans.”

There was obviously a strong reaction to the statement but he just continued onwards, needing to finish his piece.

“We do not know why the Rulers are attacking us, but they have done so in a way that would hide that they are the attackers. At this time we are recommending that the world comes together to find how to safely remove these essense stones to both free these captured soldiers and to potentially gain much needed allies.”

“I understand that is a lot to take in. Sung Jin-Woo will now be able to answer any questions.”

He stepped away and after a moment an assistant came and removed the podium, since it would only be a hindrance to the S rank hunter. The camera was also aimed a bit lower as he wheeled his way into position.

He didn’t like being the center of attention but he knew just how important it was to make sure everyone had this information. No one would trust it if the person who found it wouldn’t speak up, so here he was.

He looked over to the moderator that was handling all the technical parts of this meeting as she patched through the first question. “The Japanese association president wants you to show the elf you captured and demonstrate how you get information from it.”

That was simple enough, and an understandable request. He nodded and summoned forth the shadowy undead creature. “This is Baruka, he served in their military in a role that is similar to a general. By raising his soul as a summons I am able to understand the ice elf language. For example,” He turned to the elf, switching to its native language. “state your name.” What came out from both of them sounded like breathy laughter. 

He turned back to face the camera. “While it was previously assumed that Ice Elves just acted in an insane manner by laughing at hunters while killing them, that’s actually just their language.”

The next to ask a question was a Russian delegate. “Can you tell us more about these ‘Denizens of Chaos’ and who are their leaders?”

He nodded, that was a good question. He asked Baruka to say more about his people and culture. After speaking back and forth in trills and laughs for a minute or so he translated the information.

“I will do my best to translate word for word, but the languages aren’t particularly similar.”

He thought through the right wording for a moment before relaying the words Baruka said to him.

“We are a nomadic people that are not bound to a single plane of existence. We were born into existence from the energy that holds the different realities together. We are the void given form and this allows us to pass freely and go where we wish.”

Jin-Woo paused for a moment. “I want to clarify that the origins just stated are more of a religious view rather than hard fact.” He then got back into telling Baruka’s tale.

“We have few rules and the powerful thrive while the weak shall perish as the multiverse is a cruel place. The very strongest of us lead and are known as ‘Monarchs’. There are nine of them and each has a title and a domain, based on who they are and who follows them. I have served under the Frost Monarch my entire life.”

Jin-Woo hadn’t really had time to really learn as much as he’d like to from the elf so this had actually been very informative for him as well.

The follow up wasn’t surprising and came from the top hunter in Brazil, a powerful woman that was not to be trifled with. “Who are the current monarchs and what are their domains?”

The various leaders listened to a bit more of the manic sounding laughter. “Only six of the seats are currently filled to my knowledge. My leader is the youngest, Sillad, the Monarch of Frost and King of the Snow Folk. Rakan is the Wolf Monarch, the King of Beasts. Querehsha is the Monarch of Plagues, the Queen of Insects.” Jin-Woo just sighed, regretting his promise to be as accurate as possible. “He also says that she smells awful.”

“She isn’t strong in a traditional way, but Yogumunt isn’t to be trifled with. She is a true master of bridging universes with rips in space that can move entire armies in an instant. She is the Monarch of Transmutation and the Queen of-” Jin-Woo paused for a moment. “The closest literal translation for her people is ‘demonic specters’, but I don’t know if that’s accurate or not.”
“The most powerful is Antares, the Monarch of Destruction and King of Dragons. He is the unofficial leader of all the Monarchs since none would be able to win in single combat.”

Jin-Woo frowned for a moment. “The one most relevant to us would be Isabella, the Iron body Monarch, Queen of Altered Humans. She is a human from another reality that became strong enough to take her place among the Monarchs and rules over any humanoids that join their empire. If we were to join forces with them we would be under her domain. In this case, ‘Altered’ is basically a synonym for ‘awakened’ since that’s the only kind of alteration happening in this world.”

There was lots of chatter from that dump of information but he kept moving forward.

“For the others. The oldest being of all Denizens of Chaos is Legia, Monarch of the Beginning and King of Giants. However, he was taken captive by the Rulers, which was what tipped the balance in their favor. Baran is the Monarch of White Flames, the King of Demons, he was killed during an issue of infighting and I don’t know if he’s been replaced yet since the final battle wasn’t much later.”

“The final Monarch is controversial for the Denizens. He is not a Denizen of Chaos by birth but a Ruler that was betrayed by his own people and joined our forces to get vengeance. Ashborn is the only being that might be able to contest Antares’ place as the strongest, he is the Shadow Monarch and King of the Dead but many don’t consider him a true Monarch because of his origins. Baran had been sent by Antares to kill him, after killing Baran he could not be found and it’s unknown if he died from his wounds or went into hiding.”

He could see dozens of people taking notes on this mythical history lesson and trying to keep track of the sudden wave of information after ten years without a drop. Go Gunhee briefly stepped forward to pull attention back to himself.

“We will only be taking one additional question for now, but we will be learning as much as we can through this source and submitting what is learned to the hunters of the world.”

When Liu Zhigang made it known he wanted to speak, most others rescinded their own requests. He was officially the second strongest hunter in the world, though many believed he could be considered the strongest. This was a man that had faced hordes of demons without breaking a sweat, but he looked deeply shaken as he spoke up.

After asking his question his translator passed it along. “Please ask the shadow if the Denizens that were captured and forced to attack us were all soldiers, or if they were also civilians.”

He nodded and did just that. Jin-Woo didn’t like the answer, but he passed it along all the same. “The Rulers captured everyone they could. They despise our kind and do not distinguish between soldiers, explorers, craftsmen, or children too young to even walk. They consider us a plague, not a people.”

Everyone present was horrified, but none more than the hunters. They had dedicated their lives to wiping out monsters, only to find that they weren’t monsters at all. The ‘monsters’ were people from another realm of existence that were enslaved and brainwashed through magic and sent to the front lines to die a cannon fodder.

It was a nightmare for the prolific hunters who, in an instant, had their list of kills suddenly shift from accomplishments to sins. Of course, they didn’t have any other options, it was kill or be killed, but every hunter there was suddenly thinking of moments where they’d spotted an enemy that was oddly small or far less skilled.

They had been slaughtering innocents, victims that they didn’t even know were in need of saving.

Chapter Text

Sung Jin-Woo sat in his office transcribing the long and complicated history that Baruka was sharing with him. They never knew what would be important and what questions were best to ask, so he was given hundreds of questions to answer, everyone hoping for his abilities to finally shine light on the mysteries of the gates.

He couldn’t complain that much, he didn’t have much to do other than this for the week with his other projects not needing his immediate attention. Woo Jin-Chul was still getting the final approvals to use his shadows to spy on people, specifically hunters suspected of committing crimes within dungeons. The decision had finally been made to have half the summoned knights simply turned into decent armor while the other half was being stored as a sort of reserve force. And finally Song Chi Yul had also been helping to keep things more quiet by going from gate to gate with a handful of shadows to prevent any dungeon breaks.

One project that had been going on but he wasn’t a part of was the mission to let a rural gate break on purpose so that they could capture the attacking denizens. The goal of this was to find a way to remove the essence stones without killing them. It was honestly a longshot since they weren’t exactly experts in magical brainwashing, but if they managed to succeed it could give them powerful allies and a much better chance against their enemies.

He sighed and went through the next question. “What started the war between the Monarchs and the Rulers?”

“There has been war between our races, on and off, since we started recording history. They are beings of harsh rules and unchanging ideals under their false god, while we are the Denizens of Chaos, always changing and always free.”

He nodded, so it seemed to be a mix of inherent differences between the two species, specifically the governmental systems that each side preferred, and a religious war on top of that. The denizens of chaos had an anarchic system where there weren’t any real set institutions and the leaders weren’t elected, they gained the position by killing the past monarch or some other display of strength. On the other hand the Rulers had what sounded like a theocratic dictatorship.

The undead ice elf gave a wicked grin. “The most recent iteration of our eternal war was because we killed their false god to prove he was not the creator but instead just another ruler. I wish I could have been there that day when they gutted their precious ‘creator.’”

The smile faded away. “After that they attacked us in force like never before. In retribution for killing the oldest ruler they kidnapped the oldest monarch, in fact oldest of all denizens, Legia.”

Wow, he doesn’t agree with the rulers, but their extreme actions make sense in the light of their ‘God’ being killed. Obviously this Creator wasn’t actually a god that created the universe. He highly doubted that, if there even is a god, they would be killable.

He was finishing up noting down the new information when he felt his magic tug a little bit in a way that told him one of his summons was healing. He’d left Igris with the girls to keep them safe so he was at least relieved when he saw it wasn’t that particular summon. However, he was in a state of near panic when he felt that it was Princess the shadow wolf that had been hurt and was rapidly regenerating.

He looked through her eyes and was filled with shock and then rage at what he saw. Jin Chul was beaten and bloodied, looking like he was on the verge of death. Jin-Woo didn’t hesitate before swapping with Princess, ready to unleash hell on whoever had done this.

Woo Jin-Chul had been on a very uneventful lunch break, walking a few blocks away to a cafe where he could get coffee and a sandwich. There were closer places but the place he was going to actually made coffee strong enough there that it affected hunters. It was strong enough that you had to show your hunter ID to order it because it would kill a regular person.

He had been about halfway there when he suddenly felt a surge of mana and bloodlust coming towards him. He barely got his arms up to guard himself before he was launched backwards, slamming into the storefront of a restaurant across the street. Glass shattered around him and he was lucky that he only crashed through tables and windows rather than people.

Jin-Chul had only just started standing up when his attacker was on him again. The man was in pitch black plate armor with spiked knuckles that explained why that punch hurt his arms so much.

He was grabbed by the collar of his shirt while he was still dazed and pulled back into the street before thrown into a parked car that crumpled around his body. It had barely been a few seconds and the entire street was in chaos with people running for their lives. As his mystery assailant took a step closer he went on the attack, tackling the hunter while releasing a powerful electrical charge.

To his genuine surprise the attack did virtually nothing but cause the man to laugh. “Did you really think I wouldn’t come prepared? I took an armor set of mine and had it given a coat of rubber so your lightning hands wouldn’t be an issue.”
He recognized that voice but didn’t have the time to try and remember who it belonged to. His focus had to be on getting that damn helmet off so he could shock him and end the fight quickly. He doubted he could do much brute force damage through that armor either since he was unarmed, so removing the helmet was his best bet.

After being thrown to the ground hard enough to crack the roads he had an idea. He whispered to his shadow as he started to get up. “Princess, pull his helmet off when I hold him still.”

He received a brutal kick to the stomach, but instead of flying off again he grabbed onto the leg that hit him, pulling his attacker down with him. He turned it into a grapple as he tried to hold his assailant still, but he could immediately tell he wouldn’t be able to hold it for long.

The hunter had a reddish glow and was able to throw multiple elbow strikes into him and he was pretty sure he felt his ribs broke. But it didn’t matter because Princess, being the amazing wolf she was, yanked off his helmet with her powerful metal jaw.

Now he finally had a target he could hit.

However, his foe knew this as well and threw Jin-Chul off of him and into another car. Even though taking that hit hurt he’d managed to get one electrified punch off on his enemy before getting thrown off.

Both were left stunned but his attacker got up first and struck the shadow wolf, causing it to burst into wisps of shadowy smoke.

Now that he could actually see his face he recognized him as the S ranker Hwang Dongsoo. “Huh, maybe those summons aren’t as tough as I thought they’d be.”

The smoke from the destroyed wolf suddenly swirled into a vortex and condensed to form a very angry looking Sung Jin-Woo, his eyes a blazing blue that glowed with power and rage.

“Finally! I was starting to think I’d have to kill your boy-toy to get you to show up. Hope you don’t mind that I roughed him up a bit, I needed a way to make you teleport here so you couldn’t get away before I killed you.”

Jin-Woo looked over Jin-Chul’s battered body and moved over to him, completely ignoring the raging S ranker. “I’m so sorry you got caught up in my mess. Please be okay.”

After a bloodied cough Jin-Chul nodded. “I’ll be okay, I’m pretty tough too.”

His shadow griffon rose from the ground and grabbed Jin-Chul before flying off to the nearest hospital.

A skill boosted punch came flying at the back of his head as he made sure Jin Chul was taken to safety. “Hey! Don’t think you can ignore me!”

The attack however was stopped in its tracks as Hwang was forced to suddenly move backwards when a car was thrown at him and nearly struck him in the side.

Jin Woo turned around slowly. His expression was stony and radiated a bloodlust that would make most people surrender or maybe have a heart attack on the spot.

“Aw, did I strike a nerve? I’ve been having you watched for a while, figuring out your weaknesses ever since I figured out you killed my brother. I’ll admit that your story was solid, I almost believed it at one point, but you had made a mistake. You were caught by a security camera at a nearby grocery store the same time you should have been at the raid with my brother. From there it wasn’t hard to unravel your lies and see how you switched around the dates and tried to hide the truth from me.”

Jin-Woo did not respond, he simply stood there as the shadows all along the street got larger and darker.

“What? Cat got your tongue? Too scared to speak?! Don’t think I’ll hold back because you’re a cripple.”

His voice came out a monotone drone that was dismissive of the man before him. “What point is there in talking to a dead man?”

“You dare look down on me! I’ll fucking kill you!” He put his helmet back on and threw himself at Jin-Woo, arm reared back and ready to punch his face in. He’d barely gotten two steps closer when the entire street seemed to explode. About ninety different A rank shadow creatures of varying sizes and shapes burst from the ground and attacked the hunter.

The maw of a massive ice bear clamped onto his leg, it wasn’t enough to injure his impressive defense, but it did hold him still for a moment. And that moment was long enough to find himself being struck over and over by mandibles, claws, blasts of magic, and powerful ice spears that pierced his armor easily. But that didn’t matter much to him, his greatest defense was his skill that enhanced his strength and durability, the armor had mostly just been to make sure he didn’t get electrocuted.

With no small amount of effort he fought his way through the menagerie of undead monsters as he tried to reach their summoner. Few of the beasts could take more than a single hit, but they had numbers and rapid healing on their side.

After a minute or two of fighting through the wave of shadows he was face to face with Jin-Woo. He grinned and was about to unleash his most powerful attack when one final shadow rose from the ground.

His brother.

The red aura of strength faltered in the face of his dead brother. He felt a sudden pain in his gut and looked down to see a sword in his stomach. He looked back up and saw the hilt of the blade in his brother’s hands.

As the sword was pulled out and he collapsed to his knees, the countless shadows began to pull back to the necromancer. Jin-Woo walked over to him.

“You should have left the people I care about alone.” He sighed. “I held onto him in case you ever came after me. I suppose I really don’t really have a reason to hold onto your brother’s soul anymore, but I think you’ll make a good replacement.”

With a swift move of his hand he slit the man’s throat and watched as the blood flowed down his body and onto the street.

He let the older brother drift away into the void, the C rank hunter being all but useless against the foes he had now.

“ Arise ”.

He had honestly expected the man’s soul to put up more of a fight but he supposed that the fallen hunter just didn't have the strength of will to keep fighting.

He pulled out his phone and called the HA chairman. “Hello sir, you likely noticed the mana presence, but there was an incident. I’ll give my full report later once I’ve checked on Jin Chul, but the short of it is that Hwang Dongsoo attacked Woo Jin-Chul and then myself, so I killed him.”

There was a long pause. “I see. Are you okay?”

“Physically? Yes. Mentally? I’m probably going to fall apart as soon as I get home.”

“Understood, I’ll do what I can to keep this from getting worse. Hopefully we can prevent a clash between you and Andre Thomas.”

Chapter Text

Woo Jin-Chul found himself waking slowly, fluorescent lights blinding him for a moment while his eyes adjusted. After blinking a few times he looked around blearily. The first thing he saw under the bright fluorescent lights was a vague person shaped blob. Then as his vision cleared that blurry shape turned into a young woman that was still very blurry.

His voice came out a bit slow and slurred as he felt himself waking up much slower than usual. “Who’s there? Where am I?”

She made a sound that was almost a squeak in surprise as she dropped the book she had been reading. “Oh shit! You’re awake. Um, I’m Song-Yi, we’ve met a few times? I live on the floor below you with Jin-Woo and Jinah, remember? For the second question, you’re in the hospital, because… Um… you did get hit in the head a bunch, so I guess it’s fair you don’t remember a bunch of stuff.” She paused for a second, glancing past him. His vision had cleared up enough to see that it was Jinah, who was giving him a relieved smile from the doorway.

“We’re here because you got your ass kicked and we’ve been keeping an eye on you while you had your little coma nap time.” 

He nodded slowly, still not really understanding why they were in his hospital room. “How long was I out?”

“Uh, it’s been a little over two days. You can hear more about exactly what happened from the doctor people, but you were pretty fucked up when you got here. If you weren’t a high ranked hunter you'd be super dead, which would have been a bummer. Actually, even at your high rank they needed to bring in some A rank healers. So try not to die going forward, that would be a bummer.”

He just groaned slightly. “Thanks Jinah, your bedside manner is truly tactful and your words of kindness know no bounds.” In truth he understood that her words came from a place of caring deeply. He could also see just how frazzled this entire thing had left her. She was doing her best to joke but it seemed like she was on the verge of tears.

“Jinah… you know you don’t have to put on a brave face in front of me, right?”

“Yeah, I kind of do though. People being in comas is a real no-no for me, and if I take this seriously for a second I’m gonna start bawling, and no one wants to deal with that nonsense, least of all me.”

Ah shit, he’d forgotten about the fact that their mother had caught eternal sleep. They’d gotten closer over the last few months, so he could guess that it would be tough on her, but that past trauma just added more to it.

While he was thinking of something to say, Song-Yi cut in. “So, were you successful in getting something tastier than hospital food?”

Jinah gave her a big smile and started pulling out more snacks and seemed feasible to fit in her purse.

As they chatted and snacked, his mind finally caught up with his situation and thought through exactly what had happened. Then something crossed his mind and he couldn’t believe he hadn’t thought of it before.

“Is Jin-Woo okay?! He had to fight Hwang Dong-Su on his own. He’s not hurt is he?”

Jinah was the one to answer him. “He won the fight, but a lot of people have some big feelings since there are videos of him killing a dude in the street. He’s physically fine though.”

The fact that she specified ‘physically’ is not a great sign. The best solution here would be to talk to Jin-Woo himself. He started to try and get up but was quickly stopped by how exhausted he felt and the nurse that glared at him as she walked into the room.

“Sir, you need to lay back down. You were badly hurt and I won’t have you opening up your wounds.”

The woman looked over at the two teenage girls, “You two need to step out for a few minutes while we go over everything.”

At first Jinah looked like she would protest but he cut her off. “It’s okay, we’ll finish talking once we’re done.”

After a few seconds he was alone in the room with her, the nurse pulling out a clipboard and taking notes. “How much do you remember about being attacked?”

“I think I remember most of it. I was getting coffee when a man in insulated armor ambushed me.”

“Good, now I’m going to need you to look into this light.”

They went through a few more tests that he recognized as ways to check for a concussion. She also checked over his body and prodded everywhere that hurt, making sure his stitches were still good and healing correctly.

“It seems like you’re still slightly concussed, but that is to be expected. You got quite a few nasty cuts from that grass window and metal shards from the car you were thrown into. But both of those issues should resolve themselves within a day or two with your accelerated healing. However, I am still keeping you overnight.”

He scowled slightly. He really didn’t want to spend another day just sitting here, and if he just needed rest then he could do that at home. “How come?”

“Well, the lacerations and the concussion were the most visible but also the most minor issues, your other wounds were prioritized so these minor injuries weren’t healed. Both of your lungs had collapsed and a few internal organs had ruptured. Luckily you have friends in high places and got two A rank healers here within a few minutes. They got here fast enough that you shouldn’t have long lasting effects from those injuries, but we want you to stay a little longer so we can be sure.”

He nodded, he imagined that his boss was the one to find and send healers so quickly. “I see. I’ll have to thank president Gunhee for acting so swiftly.”

“Actually, it was Sung Jin-Woo. After having that shadow thing bring you here he flew in carrying a healer in each arm and told them to save your life.”

He didn’t really know how to respond to that so he just nodded dumbly.

“We’ll do a few scans later today to make sure there’s no more fluid in your lungs and that everything is working properly, and if it looks good we’ll send you home tomorrow. Do you have any questions or should I let those girls back in?”

“Yeah, you can send them in.”

They moved back to sitting in the chairs that were on either side of his bed. Song-Yi gave him a slight glare, which he was pretty sure was her resting face for anyone other than the Sung family. “What did she say?”

“Long story short, everything is healing up but they want me to stay another night just in case. Now, what’s going on with Jin-Woo?”

Jinah scratched the back of her head. “Well… After his griffin brought you here and he killed that guy who attacked you, he flew over to a nearby hunter guild and kidnapped their strongest healers before flying them over to you. Apparently he had been keeping an eye on you through Princess and knew you’d need magic healing.”

He nodded, even if that was a very extreme response it was clearly necessary and very appreciated.

“Um, after that he just sat in the waiting room with us for a while while you were in surgery. After a few hours we were told you were in a coma and he got a bit… intense.”

Well that sounded ominous. “Intense? What does that mean?”

When Jinah didn’t immediately answer, Song-Yi cut in. “He had this emotionless glare. Then he just walked off and went on a rampage and cleared a few dozen gates across the country.”

Jinah nodded. “I already texted him that you got up though. So once my brother leaves a dungeon long enough for him to have reception and get a text he’ll probably stop and come over.”

He nodded slowly. He hadn’t known exactly how bad of a reaction Jin-Woo would have to his brief coma, but at least a monster killing spree was manageable and hopefully hadn’t caused any long term issues.

“Ok. Is there anything else I should know about?”

The two girls looked at each other for a moment. “So, the entire fight and just about everything else was caught on video. Which means you’ve both gotten pretty famous very fast. It’s a bit of a viral story actually.”

“Are we famous because we’re hated or because there’s support?”

Song-Yi kept a straight face and was trying to be serious but was clearly a bit amused. “It’s not really either of those.”

Jinah had no such restraint and openly laughed out loud. “You two become a meme!”

He blinked a few times in confusion. “I’m sorry, what?”

She pulled out her phone and opened up her social media account. “It’ll be easier to just show you.”

The first one he saw was a picture of Jin-Woo leaning over his injured body with a look of pure care and concern. Just behind him was a Hwang, mid punch, his eyes wide as a car went flying at his head. The caption of the photo was, ‘This could be us, but you playin’.

He scrolled down to the next one, a picture of Jin-Woo ripping a goblin in half in the middle of the street. This time the caption read, ‘Get yourself a man that goes on a murderous rampage when you get hurt.”

He looked through a few more and found that the tags pretty much always had #JinWoo, #relationshipgoals, and #defibrillator

“I can at least understand some of these, since apparently people have misunderstood the situation and thought we were dating. But what do defibrillators have to do with any of this?”

Jinah just laughed again. “It’s your ship name!”

Ship? What on earth was she talking about? He looked over to Song-Yi, hoping she could provide a more comprehensible answer.

She gave a disgruntled sigh. “Ship as in relation-ship. A lot of times people give names to couples, usually it’s just their names mixed together, but sometimes it’s something more clever like this one.”

“Okay… But why medical equipment??”

“Isn’t it obvious? You use electricity and he brings things back to life, so together you’re a defibrillator.” He was perpetually reminded that Song-Yi was kind of a little shit if you weren’t one of the very few people that she opened up to. He did his best to ignore it though, but he hoped that he’d be part of the ‘in group’ eventually.

“Huh, that’s actually pretty clever, but still incorrect. I should probably make a statement to correct them and assure the public that I’m fine.”

Jinah just shook her head. “Oh, people know you’re almost certainly just friends and coworkers, but the internet doesn’t care about things like that. Besides, addressing it will just make it more interesting to people. If you really dislike this then just ignore it and people will move on.”

“That makes sense.” He pinched the bridge of his nose. “It’s still very odd to have people joke about me being romantic with a good friend.”

His shadow suddenly swirled and darkened for a few moments until Jin-Woo stumbled out of the wisps of darkness. His outfit was covered in monster blood, his hair a disheveled mess, and his eyes had an almost manic look to them.

Jin-Woo immediately started looking him over, his breathing fast and voice clearly sounding panicked. “Are you okay? Please tell me that you’re alright.”

“Jin-Woo, calm down for a second. I’m okay. I’ll be here a little bit longer but I’ll be fine.”

He collapsed against the bed and buried his face into his shoulder, gripping his arm like he was terrified he’d drift away. “Don’t fall asleep. Please, don’t fall asleep like mom.”

Jin-Woo was likely the strongest hunter in the country at this point, so it felt like some sort of cognitive dissonance to have such a powerful person be so weak at the same time. He supposed everyone had weaknesses no matter how impervious they seemed, and for Jin-Woo the main chink in his armor seemed to be the people he cared about not waking up. Granted, that would be hard on anyone, but it was especially hard on him.

It still shocked him that he fell into the category of people that JIn-Woo cared about deeply enough to be affected like this. But in the end all he could really do was give him a space where he could be weak without judgment or consequence. After a few minutes he realized that the hunter had fallen asleep while half draped over the hospital bed.

After thinking over what Jinah and Song-Yi had told him he realized that the man probably hadn’t slept since before all of this happened. Part of him considered just letting Jin-Woo rest there but decided against it. He needed to sleep in a real bed.

He gently shook him until he got a bleary and tired glance. “I know you’re tired, but you need to go home and rest. We can talk more later.”

He looked over at the two girls. “Can you two make sure he gets there? He clearly needs more attention than I do right now.”

Jinah nodded, “You got it, Government Man.”

Chapter Text

A few days after the attack on Jin-Woo and Jin-Chul life began to fall back into place. A sense of normalcy returning after all of the recent chaos. He leaned back against the couch, kicked his foot up onto the table, and relaxed as much as possible while watching TV. After killing an S rank from another country and clearing a few dozen dungeons other people had paid for, the chairman had, as kindly as possible, demanded that he take a week or two off.

The man wasn’t angry and didn’t seem to hold any part of it against him, but that didn’t change the fact that it made a lot of work for his boss. It was clear that him being around would just make it harder for Gunhee to pacify the many people that got upset or nervous at seeing two S rankers fight in the street, especially since it ended in a death and resurrection.

He’d found out that apparently across the world a lot of people referred to him as ‘The Korean Lich’. Which felt weird in a way, why did they feel the need to state his nationality? Were there other necromancers that he had to be distinguished from? As far as he knew he was the only one with an army of undead, which was probably for the best.

The people closest to him were there with him. Jinah and Song-Yi were bickering over what to watch while Jin-Chul was next to him just quietly observing the two. His fellow hunter also had the week off since having both of your lungs collapsed takes time to recover from, even if he was officially ‘healed’. For the most part he was just lethargic at this point from the various procedures and relying so much on his hunter based healing.

Jin-Woo honestly had no idea what show the two girls had decided on, it was some sort of medical drama in space. The plot didn’t make any sense and he was pretty sure it was also a soap opera. He was about to ask them a question on what was going on when his work phone rang from where it was charging.

That was certainly odd. Gunhee made it pretty clear he didn’t want him anywhere near work for at least a week. He didn’t want to get up so he just pulled it across the room with Ruler’s Authority, briefly hearing Song-Yi mutter that she was very jealous at his ability to get things without having to walk over and grab them.

He saw that the caller id was Gunhee. “Hello Chairman, what can I do for you?”

The man’s voice was devoid of his usual cheeriness and replaced with a cold and serious tone. “Jin-Woo. I’ve stalled as much as possible to give you time to recover. I have Thomas Andre on the other line. I don’t care what you have to do, but you need to keep this from turning into a fight. Am I understood?”

“Yes sir.”

“Good. I’m going to transfer him over to you, we’re counting on you to prevent a possible conflict between our nation and one of the strongest hunters in the world, so I cannot stress the importance of whatever you say next. Good luck.”

With that the phone call cut off and immediately started ringing again. The television had been turned off and the room had gone completely silent. Jin-Chul gave him a reassuring squeeze on his shoulder and nodded to him.

Jin-Woo took a deep breath and answered the call.

“Hello, this is Sung Jin-Woo.”

He heard a deep rumbling response in English, which he suddenly realized he could understand because he had killed and summoned the English-speaking Hwang. “Don’t act like you don’t know who’s calling.”

He responded in English, still shocked at how the language he’d never learned suddenly made perfect sense. “Hello Thomas. I assume you’re calling because of my fight with one of your hunters.”

The man laughed loudly. “That’s one way to put it. I like you, you don’t fuck around and you don’t hesitate to kill your enemies, human or monster. But you killed someone that belonged to me, and I won’t stand by and let someone break something of mine and get away with it.”

He remained calm externally but his inner dialogue could best be described as ‘fuck fuck fuck fuck’. 

He needed to say something in response to that, but how does one respond to that sort of mentality? He clearly thinks of humans as items to be owned, rather than sentient and dynamic beings. He has a ‘might makes right’ attitude and likely won’t change his mind on anything unless someone physically makes him.

Jin-Woo can’t talk to this man using reason, so he’d have to talk to him in a way he’d understand. He reached over and squeezed Jin-Chul’s hand and mouthed the words ‘I’m sorry’, preemptively apologizing for how he was about to talk about his friend. The man had already looked deeply concerned and that certainly didn’t ease his worries.

“If I’m understanding this right, I need to die for breaking one of your things. It’s a bit hypocritical to come after me since I was doing the same thing.”

“Huh? What on Earth are you talking about?”

“The man your hunter attacked was one of my things just like he was one of yours. Hwang knew that too, that’s why he went after that man in particular to draw me out. How could I let him live after he damaged one of my things?”

The man laughed loudly, clearly enjoying this conversation. “I guess the internet finally got something right. I didn’t realize he was your plaything.”

He didn’t dare look to see how Jin-Chul was reacting to this since he was pretty sure the man spoke English.

“Well, he is. One of yours stepped out of line, hurt one of mine, so I dealt with him. I see no reason for us to fight.”

“You know what, I think you’re onto something. How about this? I kill your precious little toy and we’ll call it even.”

Jin-Woo’s voice suddenly went from his false friendly tone to something cold and intense. “I’m afraid I’ll have to decline, since that would put us exactly where we started.”

The man’s voice became curious, like a cat intrigued by a bird. “I’ll admit, I’m lost. How does that put us where we started?”

“Because then I’d have to kill you for laying a hand on him.”

“HAHA! See, this is why I like you. Do you have any idea how long it’s been since someone threatened me and meant it? Oh sure, plenty of people have the confidence to talk big or boss me around, but no one has the balls to actually try it. But I can tell you actually plan to follow through. You wouldn’t stop until you found a way to kill me.”

He heard the deep inhale of the man smoking a cigar before continuing. “Here’s the thing though, we both know you couldn’t actually do it. There’s no doubt you’d be a tricky opponent between your army and that teleporting, especially if you knew I was coming for you. But at the end of the day you’re just too weak. If you hadn’t pulled that shit using his dead brother to throw him off, Hwang might have managed to kill you, and if one of my lackies could kill you, then you don’t have even a small chance of killing me.”

“Not yet I don’t.”

“Hm?”

“I’m the only hunter in the world that gets stronger after every fight. You’re right, if we fought right now then I wouldn’t last even a minute against you. But eventually I’ll be a match for you.”

“That just sounds like a reason to kill you now and not give you the time to catch up.”

“But that would be boring, wouldn’t it? How long has it been since you’ve actually been challenged in a fight? Since you’ve felt the blood pump through your veins and had the thrill of not being sure you’ll win but doing it anyways? Here’s my offer, we postpone our fight until I’m a nation ranked hunter, and then one of us dies.”

The man gave a loud and deep laugh. “You know what, I accept. I want to see where this goes. I’ll see you as soon as we share a rank. But don’t take too long, because if I get bored I might just come and kill you early.”

And with that he hung up the phone and collapsed into the sofa. He was quickly wrapped in the loving arms of Jinah, Song-Yi, and Jin-Chul.

Song-Yi did her best to give him a reassuring smile. “I don’t really know what’s going on, but we’re in this together.”

Jin-Chul looked far less sure. “I’m not completely fluent in English, but from what I did catch, he still plans on fighting you.”

He sighed and nodded. “He still wants me dead, but I got him to agree to wait until I become a nation ranked hunter or he gets tired of waiting.”

There were gasps of shock and dismay from all of them but he just leaned deeper into the group hug. “I really don’t want to get into it too much right now, but it basically means that I need to become the strongest hunter in the world in order to survive this.”

Jinah gave him a teary smile. “That’s all? We’ve got this in the bag.”

He gave her one back, filled with false confidence. “You’re right. This’ll be easy.”

Jin-Chul didn’t have the right attitude to give the same false reassuring optimism, so instead he just rested his head against Jin-Woo’s shoulder as he cried silently. He was terrified he’d lose another close friend. He’d lost too many friends over the years and refused to add Jin-Woo’s name to that list.

After that night seemingly everything and nothing changed. The girls still went to school, within a few days they went back to work too, none of their routines were different. Even so, there was a clear shift in the household. Firstly, Jin-Chul was over nearly every day, Jinah had joked at times that he might as well just move in. The man was an expert at keeping a calm and collected exterior, but it didn’t take a psychic to figure out that man was badly shaken by Andre’s threat. Without a way to fix the problem he would just be physically nearby, as if he was subconsciously afraid that Jin-Woo might just drift away at any moment.

Another change was their diet. Comfort foods had a place in nearly every meal. Was it healthy? No, but when you’re staring death in the eye, eating your vegetables suddenly seems far less important. At the same time though, the looming danger had the opposite effect on their school work, especially for Song-Yi.

The safety net that Jin-Woo provided was suddenly much less secure and there was a very good chance she’d have to take care of herself. She couldn’t just coast by, relying on his kindness, she had to be ready to graduate and get a job in case the man providing for them died in the near future. It was a dark and harsh line of thinking, but that didn’t make it less true.

It had been nearly a month since the call, Jin-Chul sighed as he thought about the makeshift family he’d found himself a part of. He walked down to Jin-Woo’s office to bring him some more paperwork and to just check on him. They’d recently gotten authorization to use the shadow summons to spy on hunters that were suspected of a crime, but only while they were in a dungeon. Even though it meant lots of paperwork, he was glad they were finally able to start cleaning up their ranks.

Once he reached the office he paused as someone he didn’t know walked out. After a moment he knocked and walked inside.

“Oh, hey Jin-Chul. I didn’t forget a meeting, did I?”

“No, just stopping by to drop off a surveillance request and to talk about logistics. Who was that woman that I saw leaving just before I got here?”

Jin-Woo frowned and stared at his desk as he tried to find the right words, but there didn’t seem to be an option that wasn’t somber and at least a little heart breaking. “She’s a lawyer. She’s helping me finish setting up my will.”

“I see. I- That makes sense. Anything I should be aware of?”

Jin-Woo smiled softly, knowing that when Jin-Chul was overwhelmed he tended to fall back on acting as professional as possible. “Yeah. I know it’s a lot to ask, but would you be Jinah’s godparent? I’d previously had Song Chi-Yul listed, but I’ve seen you with her and I think you’d be a better fit. If nothing else, the girls have gotten to know you better and are more comfortable around you. Sorry, I’m not really sure of the etiquette for asking someone this.”

“Only Jinah?”

That wasn’t the question he was expecting. “Oh, well I don’t actually have any legal guardianship over Song-Yi to hand over. She just stays with us because her parents are awful and she’s a legal adult who can live where she wants to.”

“Hm, I suppose that makes sense.” After a moment he noticed Jin-Woo had a look of deep concern and fear in his eyes, making him realize he hadn’t actually answered the question.

“Of course I will. I would gladly take them in if anything happened to you. Just- please don’t act like it’s a guarantee. It’s good to be prepared for the worst, but I won’t stand by and let you give up.”

Jin-Woo was about to respond when a look of shock crossed his face. Shocked enough that he stood up in surprise without remembering he wasn’t wearing his prosthetic that day and immediately fell back into his chair.

“What’s wrong?!”

“One of my shadows just saw something that needs our immediate attention. That woman in the Hunter Guild that we’re watching for possible embezzlement of mana stones just got attacked by high orcs.”

That seemed pretty par for the course since she was an A rank hunter.

Jin-Woo had already summoned forth Golem and was grabbing his armor. “High orcs that are fluent in Korean!”

Chapter Text

Sung Jin-Woo rushed to put his armor on as quickly as possible. He refused to miss this chance, to capture a denizen of chaos that could speak Korean and seemed to retain at least some of its mind. He kept an eye on the situation through the summon that had been hiding in the spellcaster’s shadow as part of an investigation.

As he got geared up, Jin-Chul was next to him contacting all the necessary people, from the Hunter Guild to the Hunter Association’s Research Division. A Denizen that could actually communicate with more than just Jin-Woo would be an incredible boon. If nothing else, having a second contact would be a huge help with finding a way to free them from the essence stones.

The moment he got the final piece of his blood red armor on, the wisps of darkness swirled around him, taking him away. He was deposited into a wide open cavern where hundreds of high orcs stared at the odd newcomer. The largest of them and the clear leader of the high orcs looked down at him from his throne.

“Who dares to intrude? You must be a fool to-” He stared at him with an inquisitive eye. “You’re not like the others, are you?”

The hunters looked at him in awe, finding in him a glimmer of hope in the face of unbeatable odds. He heard at least one of them call out in joy. “It’s Sung Jin-Woo, we’re saved!”

“You can all leave, I’ll handle this from here.”

The A ranked hunters scrambled to leave as quickly as possible, not hesitating to flee at his command.

“I do not know what you are, but it is not wise to ignore me, and even less wise to defy me.” He gestured to his army of high orcs. “Bring them back, try to get at least one or two alive.”

They surged forward in a wave while the strongest remained back with their leader. They barely covered a third of the distance to reach Jin-Woo when spears of pure ice were rapidly fired out of his shadow and struck down one after another. At the same time his other S rank summon leapt out of his shadow and began pummeling the orcs with his spiked gauntlets.

It didn’t take more than a few seconds for their leader to call out. “Enough! We shouldn’t be fighting against our own, or have you fools lost so much of your minds that you don’t recognize a Monarch when you see one?” The massive red orc stared at him for a few seconds longer. “But, why would the Shadow Monarch be in a place like this…? No, that’s not quite right. You're not him, but you’re also clearly not a human.”

While they stared each other down a large portion of the high-orcs had fallen to madness and no longer headed commands that went against their conditioning. They charged after the humans with an ingrained need to hunt and kill them. Jin-Woo sent his two strongest summons to intercept them during their journey through the winding tunnels so that the hunters could escape.

Jin-Woo stood defiantly and spoke loudly in response, using the terminology that Baruka used. “My name is Sung Jin-Woo. I am not the Ashborn, but I carry a fragment of him and his power.”

“I see, that would explain your odd presence. My name is Kargalgan, I am the Head Shaman of the High Orcs, Keeper of Knowledge and Story, and advisor to Legia himself. What are you doing here, Fragment of Ashborn?”

“My name is Sung Jin-Woo and I want to help you get free from the essence stones that the Rulers placed inside you.”

Kargalgan nodded slowly. “That is a high claim, Fragment. Though… there is a chance you would be able to, depending on what powers you inherited. The reason we cannot free ourselves from these accursed crystals is that their removal will rapidly drain our energy until they are a husk. Just a touch is enough to cause a near instant death.”

“What can I do to help?”

“That is what I wish to know as well. Allow me to look into your mind and understand your capabilities, the same as I looked through those hunters to learn your strange language.”

Oh yeah, he’d forgotten to ask how he was speaking Korean.

He nodded in acceptance. “I can agree to that. I must warn you against using this as a chance to attack me, because my shadows don’t give second chances.”

All he got in response was a grunt before the massive orc released a wave of psychic energy that washed over him. He felt it building as a bad headache first but let himself relax and not fight against the intrusion.

Sure, there were probably dozens of reasons why one shouldn’t let an orc read your mind, but he had to admit he was incredibly curious. What would he see? What did it feel like? Did Kargalgan just get the facts or did he download his emotions as well? Would Jin-Woo’s thoughts feel like his own memories now? It really was such a fascinating power and raised so many questions.

After a few moments the odd pressure ended and he saw the orc sitting in his throne with a look of consideration. “It can be done.” His face contorted for a moment, as if he were in a great amount of anguish. “I do not believe you can comprehend the amount of willpower it takes to remain sane let alone contemplate escape.”

“Tell me what you need me to do.”

The high orc radiated power but seemed so weak at the same time.

“I place our fates in your hands, Ashborn. You must  ̴͖̰̩̭͔̜̫̪̎͜͜t̵͇̥̑́̈́̒ê̷̘̳̟̭͉̂͋̄͑̇́̽̕l̵̼͙̥̞̜͈͑e̵̝̙̬̮͙̺̺͂͌̆̏̋̿́ͅp̷̘̯̮̃̒̀̄͘ͅö̵̧͉̭̞́́r̵̫̞̙͂̀̓̌̃͝ṯ̴̠̈́̆̀̔́ ̵̲̖̮̳̱̱̳͆̚ț̷̨̗͔̞̼̂̋͛͂̇̊̕h̸͉̖̹̜̞̦͒̉e̷̱̬̰̓͝ ̸̺͓͓͍͚͙͋̍̀̃̄̈̋͂͝͝m̸̱̏̈o̸̪͖͕͂̆͊̈̈̆̚̚m̶̨̲̬͉͍̭͔̫̏̃e̶̢͉̮͇̲̣̥̤̰̙̍̈́͊̄̓͒̄n̸̝̊͂̀̐̄́͆̄͘͠ţ̷̡̮̜̪̺̤̹͔̈́̅̈̇̂̂̓͘ͅ ̵̨̠̠̪͇̪͓͇̾̊̋͋́̀͠ÿ̶̛͎́̆͛͘ơ̸̡̟͖̳͈̜̈́͛̀̊ͅư̶̢̥͙̣͔̱͇͗̃̈́̃̕ ̶̡̯̻̗͍͈̦̋͊̾́͐͜t̵̠̤̝̯̩͚̰͈̉̈́̉͋͋̿́͠ò̸̖͈̝͙̖̥͔̀̑̑̑͂̊ŭ̵̬̫̄̀̊̎͆c̵̩̺̠͔̘͚̗̫̍̔͑̓͆̎̍͜ḩ̶̛̘̬͎̦͇̏̍́̌̂͊̾͜͝͝ ̴̦̯̘̩̼̱̠̍̓̀͌͑̾͠ẗ̴̛̮̩͉̬̺͕͍͕̙͈́̃̉̄͒̾͗͝h̴̡̰̎̐̐̅͒͑̾͠ë̴͎͙̥̠͚͙̱́̆͑͗̅̾͝ ̶̖̼̰͍̮̖͓͎͗̏̌̃͛̇̍͠s̸͎͍͛̀́̿͒̏̀̌ţ̴̨̥̗̳̤̻̮͔̣͋̎̒̊̀͊́̏̄ő̸̠̭̩̆̊̏͆̍̚n̶̼̙͙̘͙̜̝̼̘̈́ĕ̵̛̜̠̭̬̙͖͕̖̮̮̇̂͋̽̈͛̂͝.”

His words seemed to fuzz and distort to the point it was incomprehensible. Kargalgan clutched his head in agony and screamed out, receiving punishment for trying to fight against his programming. In a final act of defiance against his captors he drove his clawed hand into his own stomach and ripped out the crystal that controlled him.

He collapsed to the ground in an instant, eyes falling shut as the stone absorbed his life force. But even as blood dripped down his tusks he smiled. “I die free.” He reached out and grabbed Jin-Woo, remaining alive for a few moments longer through sheer willpower. “Touch the crystal and teleport yourself and it within 13 milliseconds to save them.”

With that, all signs of life had left Kargalgan. And Jin-Woo wept. He didn’t weep for Kargalgan, from what he’d seen he was a vicious and cruel creature that liked to torment his prey. He wept for whoever Kargalgan was before being twisted by an implanted need to hunt humans. Who he was before he was captured, experimented on, and left in a cave to fight to the death with their world. He wept for a proud creature that he would rather die by his own hand than submit.

“I won’t try to force you to join me, so I won’t ask twice. But if you want to keep fighting, to strike back against the Rulers that have hurt you and your people. Then Arise. ”

The swirling vortex of shadowy wisps was immediate. After a few moments a massive glowing red orc knelt before him, still towering over JIn-Woo. At a sudden increase of noise in the cavern, he looked over to find the source. Without their leader holding them back the various high orcs went berserk and attacked without restraint, only to be intercepted by the shadow of their dead chieftain.

All of the remaining orcs converged on them and Kargalgan stepped between his new master and his former comrades. His words came out in a deep and rumbling orcish. “Rest my brothers. Hymn of the giant. Hymn of the dragon.”

He swelled in size, truly living up to the name of giant. The other orcs didn’t even come up to his knee as he rose to his full height. The second transformation was his head morphing into the head of a dragon, displaying his mastery of magic and his overwhelming power compared to the others.

Fire roared out and rolled over the weakest of the high orcs, putting them out of their misery. There were only a handful that could withstand his attack, who Jin-Woo recognized as the high orcs that had been standing beside his throne, likely his personal guards or good friends.

Making full use of his giant form, Kargalgan grabbed two of his attackers by the scruff of their necks and carried them over to an offshoot of the cave. The other two that followed were releasing attacks that were rapidly healed thanks to Jin-Woo. It took a few minutes but the giant orc managed to get all four shoved into the dead-end tunnel and then sealed it off with a barrier spell.

Afterwards, he shrunk back down and knelt before Jin-Woo. “Please… Save them…”

“I’ll try. I can’t promise I’ll succeed, but I’ll try to save as many Denizens as I possibly can.”

He was somber but hopeful as he walked through the dungeon, stepping around the corpses of orcs littered everywhere. Every dead Denizen of Chaos felt like one more failure in their fight against the Rulers that sent them here like cannon fodder. On top of that, the glimmer of hope that they could save them was stemmed by the fact that not only would it be incredibly difficult, but he’d only be able to help a couple of them a day at most. This was a miniscule fraction compared to the thousands upon thousands that died every day in this seemingly pointless war.

But it was something.

When the day started he didn’t have any idea how they would move forward in their goal to release the captured Denizens of Chaos, but now they at least had a way to save some. It might be a miniscule number compared to the total, but it was still more than if they had done nothing.

As he stepped out of the dungeon and back into the light of day he found Jin-Chul and various other hunters on standby. The original team sent in was also there receiving medical attention. Jin-Chul and the guildmaster of the Hunter Guild came up to him.

“What’s the situation? Were you able to capture the Korean speaking orc?”

He shook his head. “Not exactly. He was highly intelligent and willing to assist us, but the essence stone prevented him from saying anything that would have helped us in the fight. To get around this, he ripped out the essence stone himself and explained how we can use my power to free the others before he died from the effects of the stone.”

“Wait, you can remove the stones? This could be the turning point in the war if we can recruit large numbers of them.”

“Yes and no. The problem is that the stone drains them of all mana within 13 milliseconds, so teleporting it away the moment I touch it is the only real option for them to survive the process.”

Jin-Chul scrunched his eyebrows in thought. “That’s a very specific number, are we positive it’s accurate?”

“He was able to learn Korean in under a minute and held the title ‘Keeper of Knowledge’, so I’m inclined to trust it. We wouldn’t be able to have him walk us through the math anyways. He joined my summons, but becoming undead dulls the mind to the point that even being able to speak is impressive.”

“I see. It’s still a step forward, hopefully his sacrifice wasn’t in vain. I’ll get everything started so we can begin capturing whenever possible rather than killing them. If all goes well it won’t be long until we have the first Denizen’s un-brainwashed and fighting alongside us against these Rulers.”

Chapter Text

Sung Jin-Woo was exhausted and held his head in his hands as the scientists and doctors around him verified that it was another failure. The goblin on the table lay there as one of many corpses that were the result of their attempts to end this fight. He put the essence stone into a metal dish, having teleported it out of the creature’s body, but not fast enough for it to survive.

It was so much easier to kill ‘monsters’ in the dungeons where it was a life or death battle. It was so much harder to ignore the cruelty in the setting of a government laboratory doing cold and calculated experiments. Maybe it was because it was so much easier to remember their innocence when they were strapped to a table rather than attacking him with reckless abandon. Sure, they were trying to save the Denizens, but it still hurt his heart.

It had almost been a month since meeting Kargalgan, and about two weeks they’d begun the tests. He’d try to teleport the stone out fast enough, he’d fail, he’d wait for three hours and try again. In that time the scientists would go over the data collected and he would work on the other parts of his job. About half of his summons were out in the field working with various hunters to close dungeons while he did the paperwork to keep track of who was where and if any gates needed immediate attention.

Luckily this was the last one for the day and he could go home and relax. After a few more minutes the various hunters with his shadows returned them for the night. It felt a bit unnecessary, but the regulators decided that he couldn’t keep shadows on people overnight for privacy concerns. He packed up his stuff and started to wheel out of the office when Jin-Chul waved him down.

“Hey, everything ok?”

“Yeah, I just wanted to run something by you. We got reports of a fairly large gate in the middle of Seoul, barely five minutes from us, but we aren’t picking up anything on our systems. It’s only been open for maybe an hour, but there was a hunter nearby that was able to confirm it isn’t giving off any sort of mana signature.”

Sung nodded. “Either it’s so weak that nothing picks it up, or whatever’s inside is strong enough to suppress that signature like Kargalgan did but to an even greater extent.”

“That’s what I’m worried about. We want it handled fast because of where it is, but no guild is going to want to pay for a gate that’s either worthless or a huge risk.”

He sighed. “I can see where you’re going with this. Why do you want us to handle this?”

“What I said before wasn’t a lie, I just also think we would be best for the job. If it’s really just that minor of a gate then we’ll be done in a few minutes, no harm no foul. However, if something powerful is inside, you need stronger summons and further experience fighting if you hope to survive against Andre when the time comes.”

He’d honestly prefer to just ignore the looming threat of Andre’s plan to fight him to the death once he was the highest rank, but he couldn’t deny that it was smart to be as prepared as possible. “Fine, you’ve convinced me. But you’re the one telling Jinah, I don’t want to be the one she yells at.”

He got a slight smile in return from the stoic bureaucrat. “Of course, I’ll let the girls know we’ll be home late.” To himself, Jin-Chul wondered how long he’d been thinking of Jin-Woo’s apartment as ‘home’ or Jinnah and Song-Yi as ‘the girls’.

Within the hour the two of them were in their hunting gear and making their way to the nearby gate. Jin-Chul strode confidently while Jin-Woo used his telekinesis to control his blood red armor, floating along as they passed very intrigued pedestrians on the sidewalk. He’d gotten to the point where he could sustain his levitation for as long as he wanted since the skill somehow didn’t drain his mana much. He was honestly tempted to fully replace his wheelchair with just telekinesis, but could acknowledge that it wasn’t the most casual way to enter a room.

They made their way to the odd gate that was nearly thirty feet across but somehow gave off less mana than an E gate. It had barely been open for two hours and there were already police officers setting up a perimeter for safety purposes. Jin-Woo looked over at his friend, “You ready? I’m happy to do this on my own if you’d rather stay at your desk while I find out what’s going on.”

“No. It was my idea in the first place and I’d rather keep an eye on you. Plus, I wouldn’t mind shaking off the rust. Hwang reminded me that I shouldn’t become too complacent.”

He just nodded and they went into the gate together. In an instant they were transported from their bustling city to a flaming hellscape that radiated magical energy.

They both instinctively looked backwards to see the exit a swirling red, which he almost expected at this point. Why would they hide the danger of the gate if hunters could leave the moment they saw their error? A trap is only worthwhile if your prey can’t escape.

The most obvious thing was an indescribably large tower within view. It had to be as wide as a city and tall enough that it easily passed the toxic looking clouds that hovered in the sky. In the distance they could already see massive demons wandering the desolate land and a three headed beast defending metal gates that would let them enter. He couldn’t imagine them finding the boss anywhere other than the top of that tower, they’d almost certainly need to fight their way all the way to the top.

The stoic voice of his friend broke through his thoughts. “Well, It seems that this isn’t an E gate.”

He couldn’t help but chuckle.
“You know what, I think you’re right.” He took a deep breath to center himself. “Has anyone ever survived an S-rank red gate before?”

“No, but I’d prefer to change that if at all possible.” Jin-Chul’s voice was calm, but Jin-Woo could hear just how shaken he was below the surface.

“Yeah, all we have to do is either beat the boss or last until the dungeon breaks. And if this works like a normal red gate then we’ll be in here for…” He paused as he did the math. One hour outside was one day inside, and dungeons didn’t break for a week. “Between 160 and 170 days, since it can vary a little.”

Jin-Woo could see his hand trembling slightly but didn’t call him out on it as Jin-Chul started talking. “So, we have nearly half a year to beat this dungeon, and if we fail then an army of S rank demons will flood Seoul.” He took a deep breath. “And since I don’t intend on letting that happen, we might as well get started and not waste any time. First thing will be entering that tower.”

“Since it’s protected by that cloak of fire we'll probably have to enter through the front door rather than skipping to the top by flying up there.” To be honest, ‘cloak of fire’ was an understatement. It looked like the massive structure was surrounded by an endless swirling inferno so dense that it was difficult to see the building hidden within.

Without any better options showing up, they began heading directly there. They did detour a couple times to avoid the lumbering demons that seemed to almost be patrolling the area. Just by sensing the ambient mana coming off of each it seemed that even the weakest fodder was in the mid to upper A ranks and it was common to spot S ranks of varying strength amongst the demons.

After what was probably half an hour of walking his friend turned to him. “...Jin-Woo, I want to stay hopeful but let’s be realistic, I’m probably not going to last a day here, let alone half a year. I’m not a match for just about anything here, and unless I can somehow hide from them, I think you’ll need to be prepared for the worst.”

Jin-Woo just stared for a few moments before remembering something he hadn’t thought about in months. He called forth Golem and took one of the bags of equipment that his first summon carried for him. He looked through it almost frantically as he moved things around in a desperate attempt to find the item that could save his friend, or at least give him a chance.

“What are you looking for?”

He suddenly stood up and gave the bag back to Golem, who sunk back into the shadows. “This!” He held up a small glowing stone and handed it to Jin-Chul.

“What is- wait, is this a rune stone?! Why do you have a rune stone just sitting in a backpack??”

“I got it from Kang’s body, but I never really had a use for it since it holds Stealth. I thought about selling it, but thought I might need it one day. It seems like I was right. All you need to do is break it and you should be able to use the Stealth skill.”

“You could easily sell this for tens, if not hundreds, of millions of dollars, but you’re just going to give it to me? For nothing in return?”

“Well, yeah? You’re worth way more to me than that, and if this makes it even slightly more likely you’ll get out of this alive, then it’s a tiny price to pay.” He just shrugged as if it was obvious and easy to say before gesturing for him to break the stone.

Trying not to think about it too much he crushed the rune stone in his hand and felt a sudden shift within him. He could sense the new ability, how he’d be able to go unnoticed with just a thought. To test it out he let himself become unperceivable. He made no sound and was completely invisible. He walked right up to him and tapped his forehead before dropping it.

“Woah, that’s really weird to watch you just vanish like that. Even with Kang I’d been able to sense his bloodlust right before he struck, but I guess if you’re not feeling angry or violent, there’s just no indicator.”

Jin-Chul nodded slowly as he thought that over. “I’ll keep that in mind. Thank you, for everything.”

He got a big smile in return. “Of course, but remember what you said to me, don’t start treating death like it’s a guarantee. It’ll be tough, but we’ll get outta here.”

It took them another hour of traveling in near silence to reach the gates and the massive three headed dog that guarded it. It didn’t take a genius to gather that this was a powerful S rank creature, so they had to fight smart. And that just happened to look like the two of them hiding behind a distant rock crevice while his S rank summons did battle.

Hwang was a classic tank, holding melee range and taking as many hits as he needed to with his defensive skills. Baruka fired arrow after arrow, causing frost to spread across the beast, slowing it down and wounding it with each shot. Kargalgan meanwhile was their midrange and most versatile fighter with his wide array of spells, blasting it with fire and weakening it through the power of his hymns.

Once the battle was over they walked over and Sung withdrew his summons. ‘Good work guys, now. Arise.” The first attempt didn’t work so he tried again with more vigor “ Don’t you want to be free of this place? To see more than this gate? If you want to come with me then you need to Arise!”

It wasn’t his best speech to convince a corpse to join him, he wasn’t even sure how much yelling at dead bodies actually helped. But since he was successful, he’d probably keep doing it.

The lumbering three headed beast rose to its full shadowy height and looked down at him expectantly.

“I think I’ll call you Spot.” The three headed dog panted happily, its bone covered faces nuzzling Jin-Woo.

Woo Jin-Chul looked at him incredulously but said nothing about the fact that it was a silly name for a dog that wasn’t even spotted. Instead he walked over to the guard dog’s corpse and pulled a large key off of its collar.

“Alright, let’s go see if the inside is any better than out here.” And with that they opened the door and began their long journey to beat the dungeon and escape.

Chapter Text

When Jin-Woo unlocked the massive gate into the flaming monolith before him he had no idea what he would find inside. His mind couldn’t help but come up with horrible possibilities one after another. Trying to ignore his own concerns along with those of Jin-Chul beside him, he pulled the iron doors open with Ruler’s Authority and stepped inside, the gates closing behind them with a resounding bang. He double checked that they didn’t lock behind them, since that seemed to be his luck lately, but in this case they were just heavy doors, not magically locking.

The first level of the tower seemed like it could have been a red-gate dungeon all on its own with how expansive it was. It was some sort of partially demolished city-scape. All of the buildings were stone and steel, anything else had been burned away. Even then, everything still there had massive holes in the side and he could already see a handful of knocked over skyscrapers. It was unclear if this was once an actual city that had been destroyed, or if this was just the preferred aesthetic among demons.

Jin-Woo said as such to his friend, who glared slightly in response. “Please focus, we’re in an S red-gate, we don’t have time to discuss demon architecture and what sort of designs they like best. Now, let’s find shelter and figure out what resources are naturally available here and what we’ll need from our supplies. I’m assuming you still have the usual month of supplies on Golem?”

“Actually, since it’s just the two of us, it should last us up to four months, which is about two thirds of the time we could be trapped here. For water, Baruka can create Ice from mana, which means we have food and water for a while and just need that shelter.”

Jin-Chul nodded, glad that they had at least something going for them. The worst thing would have been trying to search for water in a flaming hellscape, since he highly doubted they were going to find any bodies of water, let alone one that wasn’t horrifically contaminated.

He didn’t want to go in blind so he sent out his griffin and giant bat summons to fly up and circle the area as scouts. Hopefully that would give them an idea of any places they should avoid or any safer spots to hide in. They hadn’t made it far when the ground began to rumble along with a thundering sound that was slowly growing, he glanced at Jin-Chul, who looked equally concerned.

Jin-Woo saw the cause of the oncoming catastrophe through the eyes of his griffon, grabbing his friend by the arm and pulling him in the direction of higher ground. From deeper in the city came a veritable army of Denizens. Most looked fairly weak, but they made up for that in numbers as a flood of imps, hellhounds, nightmares, and countless demons he couldn’t name came pouring down the streets towards them. 

He could guess that they were drawn in by the very loud metal gates opening and closing, but that didn’t matter much at this point.

He kept Hwang and Igris nearby to defend them while Baruka, Spot, and Kargalgan went on the offensive, thinning out the onslaught where they could. He was tempted to match the enemy with a wave of his own soldier, but he knew he’d want to preserve his mana as much as possible since they had no idea what would come next.

Even if his full army would be quicker, his S ranked undead alone still tore through the demons like a knife through butter. They attacked his summons in the reckless manner with no sense of self preservation that was typical among Denizens of Chaos that had completely succumbed to madness caused by the essence stones.

It was heartbreaking as he realized that none of these demons were attacking with weapons or any clear fighting ability. Sure, they were naturally strong enough to still be deadly to anyone B-rank or below, but it was all raw power rather than trained skill. They didn’t have the fighting styles of soldiers, just the mindless attacks of brainwashed civilians who didn’t know how to fight beyond throwing their bodies at the enemy.

Igris stuck close to them as they moved away from the battle to try and find a more defensible position. The knight was likely slightly weaker than his foes in raw power, but dispatched them without issue.

They had reached the side of a tarnished but structurally sound looking skyscraper, so he summoned forth his giant armored millipede to carry them to the top. As they started to climb he turned and looked back at his loyal knight.

“Kill them all, don’t let any escape or leave any injured on the battlefield.” Igris nodded and sprinted away to complete his task.

It was the only mercy he could offer. A quick death so that these people could escape the cruel machinations of those controlling them. He had to look away and hold back his tears as swarms of smaller demons attacked only to be cut down at his command. It didn’t take a genius to piece together that the smaller ones, barely half the size but clearly the same species, were children that had been captured and given the same treatment as all the other Denizens.

What Baruka had said was true. The Rulers saw all Denizens of Chaos as a plague, a cancer that had to be cut out. They didn’t care who was an active combatant and who wasn’t. He didn’t know if both sides fought that way, or if it was something only one side did, but he felt that he only grew more horrified and disgusted the more he learned about this eons old war.

He quickly turned when he felt Jin-Chul’s hand on his shoulder, his friend just shaking his head slowly. “Don’t think about it. Just focus on staying alive, there’s nothing we can do for them right now.”

He gave a sad nod in response, their many legged steed reaching the top of the building soon after. They looked over the edge, expecting to see the horde surrounding the building but ignoring his summons, since that was typically how they functioned. The brainwashed Denizen’s didn’t care much about anything that wasn’t a human or directly in the way of getting to humans. But in this case they just kept throwing themselves at Igris and the other shadows.

It made him think of the cerberus they’d just fought at the gate. Normally it would have charged the moment it had any hint of them being there, but instead it seemed focused on defending the gate, not necessarily attacking them. 

“I think these Denizens have a different command phrase than regular dungeons. They aren’t acting like they’re being compelled by ‘kill all humans’, instead it’s more like ‘don’t let anyone pass’ or ‘kill intruders’. But I don’t know why they’d do that.”

Jin-Chul stood next to him and watched them for a few minutes, “I think you’re right, it doesn’t make a big difference right now, but maybe later on we can use that to our advantage.”

They moved to the door on the roof and made their way to the top floor of the long abandoned building. Most of the floor seemed to have been some sort of fancy office, probably belonging to a CEO or someone else important. There were a couple holes in the floor and many of the interior walls were eroded away by the harsh winds and blazing temperatures, but they managed to find a spot that would keep them out of sight and protect them from the elements.

Jin-Woo summoned Golem so he could grab their supplies. Jin-Chul put a gentle hand on his shoulder to get his attention as he started to set up a tent.

“I’m not strong enough to go out and make any real difference against that horde, so let me handle this at least. Can you check in with your scouts before we settle here for the night?”

He just nodded and mentally reached out to his griffin, who was making lazy circles in the ‘sky’. The sky that they saw was just an illusion, the ceiling was nearly a thousand feet up, but it was still there and seemed fairly unbreakable. However, there was a large ring in the center that had a massive beam of light that went all the way down to the floor. It was almost certainly the entrance to the next floor, but his griffin couldn’t access it, with the beam of light being as hard to pass through as steel.

He passed the information along to Jin-Chul, but there wasn’t much else of relevance. It was nothing but fire, damaged buildings, and a horde of mindless demons.

After a bit of thinking he ordered his S ranks to move towards the other side of the city and to continue moving around. That way Jin-Woo and Jin-Chul could get some rest while the Denizens chased his summons around. He had a few other summons with ranged attacks do the same thing, hoping they could thin out the enemy army without costing him much mana. He also had guards stationed throughout the building so there would be plenty of warning before anything reached them.

After directing his shadows for about an hour or so he walked back over to the tent. He laid down on the available bedroll and ate the flavorless protein bar that had all the needed nutrition to keep them alive. Jin-Chul was about a foot away and rolled over to look at him.

“We need to clear this dungeon.”

He looked at his friend with a bit of confusion. “Yeah? Unless you secretly had the supplies to survive here the full 168 days before it breaks.”

He scowled as he seemed to be thinking something over. “That’s not what I mean. I don’t mean for our sake.”

“That could mean a bunch of things. What’s going on in that head of yours? You know, beyond the tower of demons we need to fight.”

Jin-Chul took a deep breath, centering himself. “Even if they realize that we’re inside a dangerous S rank gate, they only have a week to prepare and evacuate. Just this first floor and the ones patrolling outside the tower would likely cost Korea a few S rank hunters. You’re only okay because your skills specialize in fighting battles of attrition, the other S ranks would likely do well at first but would be worn down after a couple days.”

The mask of the stoic bureaucrat that Jin-Chul hid behind was starting to crack slightly in the face of the impossibly high stakes before them. His eyebrows were scrunched together and his eyes closed as he continued explaining his many concerns.

“To make matters worse, even if we somehow survive this place, the moment you step outside that gate you’ll be declared a nation-ranked hunter and Andre Thomas will come for his duel. And saying this and knowing all these dangers doesn’t help one bit, all I can do is sit here as you protect me and hope I don’t have to watch you die in my arms!”

He took in another deep breath, regaining his composure that he rarely let slip, and never to such an extent.

Sung Jin-Woo couldn’t do anything to fix this or make it better, so he just pulled him into a hug and held him close and did his best not to lose hope that they’d make it through all of this alive.

Chapter Text

The two of them laid on top of their bunker made of twisted steel beams and stone rubble. It wasn’t really necessary, but it had been good to have a project over the past week of being trapped in the red-gate. It was great for blocking the winds that carried ash and dust throughout the demolished city, however, there wasn’t much else to block at this point.

After the first few days his shadows had defeated the last of the demons on the first floor. He’d inducted the strongest fifty of them, filling out his army to the full 150, even though the newest undead wouldn’t be able to enter his shadow like the others it was still very useful. They really weren’t that skilled, so rather than being sent to battle, he dedicated them to moving resources back to the gate.

It was the same logic as the red gate he’d done months earlier with the White Tiger Guild, if they were going to be surrounded by near-certain death, they might as well get as much money from it as possible. In this case that meant taking every single body, weapon, piece of armor, and any else that looked important.

That job was done within a day or so, so he directed them to start processing the bodies so they wouldn’t take up so much space. Now, the area near the gate was a macabre pile of demon bones, essence stones, bloodied equipment, and skin that would be turned into leather.

He’d even sent the S rank shadows to deal with the wandering demons outside the tower, which took a bit longer but was finished after another two days. Luckily they were actually strong enough to be worth adding to his main force, so he started the process of releasing his weakest summons to make room for the newer ones.

The entire time this happened, the main force searched every single nook and cranny of the first level for a very infuriating reason. No matter what they did they couldn’t open the entrance to the next level. They could see it and knew exactly where it was, but there was a glowing yellow ring that remained impenetrable. They’d made sure that every demon was dead, that none of them had been carrying a key, that there was no hidden boss, or that there was any other way up or down to reach the other floor.

He’d been having his shadows collect everything odd or important looking and testing it against the glowing pillar since they had no idea what they were even looking for. But after so much time they were finding fewer and fewer things, which meant all they could really do was wait around and see if the shadows would eventually figure out what unlocked the next floor.

That led to where they were now, relaxing together in an apocalyptic wasteland while chatting aimlessly and asking each other pointless questions. Without looking over, Jin-Woo asked the next question that came to mind.

“You know, I never got around to asking, what did you do before the world went all crazy with the gates showing up?”

“I was actually in college at the time, I was planning on becoming an accountant. Nothing exciting, but it would let me take care of me and my family. I suppose I still succeeded on that front, but now that just looks like me sending them money and talking on the phone, I only see them in person every few months.”

Jin-Woo just nodded. That was a pretty common decision for high ranked hunters. It was well known that frequent proximity to hunters and gates made regular people at high risk for eternal sleep. The solution many came to was to send their loved ones away, whether that be across a city or to a distant town. The stronger the hunter the faster and more likely the awful disease was to strike. It was a harsh thing, to have so much power but know that there was a chance your very presence could essentially kill some people with enough exposure.

Early on, many people had tried to move as far from the hunters as possible in fear of eternal sleep, some also believed that the hunters were the cause of the attacks, but that had been a short-lived movement. Each and every attempt was razed to the ground by Denizens of Chaos, so people came to accept that hunters and the chance for comas were a much lesser evil compared to wholesale slaughter.

There was an odd balance, where hunters were honored as heroic savors of mankind, but you’d be hard pressed to find a regular person interested in living with or dating someone stronger than E rank. Even with the safer ranks of E and D, most people were very wary. It was an odd relief to know that if Jinah was at risk of eternal sleep she would have gotten it by now from either their dad or him. Everyone else in his life with any sort of frequency were hunters to some extent and not at risk.

Jin-Chul spoke up, pulling him from his thoughts. “What about you? Did you have any big dreams growing up?”

He thought about it for a moment. “Well, when I was a kid I really liked the idea of being a sailor or the captain of some giant ship. That turned into wanting to be a marine biologist, studying weird creatures no one had ever seen before in the dark depths of the ocean. That all sort of fell apart when the gates opened and dad was awakened as an S-ranker and was lost to the dungeons two years in. After that I did a bunch of work on the side, like waiting tables and mopping floors. Honestly, I haven’t even thought about that sort of thing in years.”

“Damn, sometimes I forget just how young you are. You always act so mature, but it’s crazy to think you were just a kid when this all started and were barely out of highschool when you started joining raids.”

They were both silent for a few moments.

Jin-Woo looked over again for a second. “Enough of that, let’s do a lighter question. What’s your favorite color and why?”

“Hm, I’d have to say either orange or a light blue. The orange from a sunset is the most beautiful, but I think light blue is the color I look best in.”

“Yeah, that’s fair. You definitely rock that blue button up you have. Um, I think mine would have to be purple. Like, a bright lavender.”

Jin-Chul smirked at him and let his magic course through his body, causing his eyes to glow purple. “So, this color?”

“Uh, yeah actually. I hadn’t thought of that, but yeah, that’s the color I was thinking of.”

He chuckled to himself for a little bit. “Well I’m honored that your favorite color is me when I’m angry.”

He shoved his friend playfully. “The more important question is whether or not you’re going to keep that terrible beard once we get out of here.” Jin-Woo smiled at him, not even realizing how much his casual confidence helped Jin-Chul. He wished he could match how assured Jin-Woo was in his ‘when’ rather than ‘if’ they escaped.

He chuckled and ran his hand over the scraggly beard that had started to grow without access to a razor or shaving cream. “At least I can grow one. You look as clean shaven as when we left. Also, that was two questions in a row, which is definitely against the rules.”

“Ah shit, you’re right. Well then, I guess you better make this an interesting one.”

“Well, there’s one thing I’ve been wondering for a while but I’ve never asked because it was none of my business to know. This is pure curiosity, and no judgment either way, and if you don’t want to answer then that’s totally fine as well.”

Jin-Woo sat up and laughed, a tiny bit of nervousness leaking in. “Damn, with an intro like that I’m a bit worried about your question. What deep dark secret are you looking to uncover?”

“Whenever someone flirts with you, you seem to completely misunderstand their intentions or ignore them altogether. And I honestly can’t tell if you’re ace, are incredibly oblivious to that sort of thing, or just weren’t interested and played dumb.”

He stared in shock and confusion for a few seconds before responding. “Okay, a lot to address there. First off, when were people flirting with me? I think I would have noticed if someone was trying to date me.”

Now it was Jin-Chul’s turn to look shocked. “You’re serious. Do you not remember Ha-Rin, the scientist who was helping with the experiments on your shadows? She offered you her number, ‘in case you wanted to work on a more personal project after hours’. Do you remember what you said in response?”

He looked away in embarrassment, definitely remembering where this was going. “Maybe.”

Jin-Chul continued on with an exasperated tone. “You gave her a five minute lecture on a healthy work-life balance and that she shouldn’t try to take on more work beyond her responsibilities. Or the time where the guy at the front desk asked you if you wanted a different place to put your sword, and you just told him that you keep your weapons inside your shadow.”

“Now wait one second. In retrospect I can see how the first case was flirting, but that was a legitimate request to see if I needed new equipment. They probably had a surplus or something so I just confirmed that I wouldn’t have a use for any sort of weapon holder.”

“That’s your conclusion. A sheath surplus? It was very heavily implied in his tone that he wasn’t referring to an actual sword. He wanted you to have sex with him.” All he got in response was a look of disgust and disagreement so he kept going.

“Same as the waitress that told you she was getting off of work soon.”

“She was just politely asking us to finish up because she was ending her shift.”

“And the nurse that asked for your number and texted you multiple times?”

“Was being kind enough to check in to see how I was doing after going through a traumatic injury. Are you really trying to say all of those people weren’t just being friendly?”

“Yes. That is exactly what I’m saying. Do you really think I’m joking?”

“Honestly, I think you’re either crazy or making fun of me. I’m a cripple with greasy hair and a shadow filled with dead people.”

He quickly went from exasperated with his friend’s denial to saddened at the idea that he thought of himself that way. He contemplated explaining how he knew exactly what people found attractive and lovable, but decided against it. Trapped in a flaming dungeon wasn’t a good time to try and push boundaries. Yeah, it was best to just be a comforting friend and not overwhelm him.

“I don’t know how to break this to you Sung, but you are very conventionally attractive. You’re even listed as one of Korea’s most eligible bachelors.”

“Wait, really? Are you sure?”

He lightly chuckled a bit at his confused expression. “Yes, I’m sure.”

That odd conversation had answered his question, at least partially. He truly was just oblivious to anyone’s intentions, but that didn’t rule out the possibility that he was asexual or aromantic. The idea that people found him hot and might want to have sex with him only seemed to make him uncomfortable, but that also could be for a variety of reasons. He wanted to push and get a definitive answer but it really wasn’t his business. They were friends, but he wasn’t entitled to that information, no matter how curious he was.

“I guess it’s my turn again. Um, what’s the first food you want to eat once we’re out of here and are free of the constant protein bars.”

He respected that Jin-Woo was trying to change the subject and was about to respond when Jin-Woo suddenly moved into action. “They found the key. It was a magic scroll in a random building. We’ll be able to start clearing floors much faster now that we know what we’re looking for.”

He got up and grabbed any needed gear. “Right. No point in waiting around any longer.” Yeah, it would probably be best to focus on fighting demons and escaping, no reason to pursue the impossible just to get hurt.

Chapter Text

Woo Jin-Chul was moving through the flaming ruins as quickly as possible without making himself known. Although he couldn’t do much to help Jin-Woo fight back the army of demons that was on each floor, he refused to be a burden who couldn’t defend himself. Reaching that goal meant training as often as he could with the Sneak skill he recently received from the rune stone.

Sure, he was invisible and silent while it was active, but that didn’t mean the skill didn’t have flaws. First, any disturbances he made would still be seen and heard. So, if he knocks something over or leaves footprints, his enemy will be able to find him. That’s what he was training at the moment, jumping between structures while leaving as little indication of his existence as possible.

The second and more difficult flaw he had to work on was killing intent. If something/someone has a high enough perception, they can sense the bloodlust that comes from a creature intending to kill them. The more the creature wants to kill the easier it is to notice. Stealth did nothing to prevent this skill, so he needed to focus on clearing his mind and feeling little to no killing intent while fighting, even while taking a life, which is far easier said than done.

After a few more minutes of running he got back to their current base. They had been in this flaming tower for 17 days now and had just reached floor 21. Once they had finally figured out how to pass between the floors they started clearing about two per day. Granted, the concept of ‘a day’ felt very abstract beyond the watch he wore, since there was no sky or sun to speak of.

He dropped the Sneak skill and walked inside the brick building Jin-Woo was commanding his shadow army from. It was small and more than a bit dilapidated, but it at least wasn’t covered in unending fire, which was a low bar that many buildings failed to pass in this apocalyptic dungeon tower.

They moved bases pretty often though since they found that it was much more difficult to see through or switch with his shadows that weren’t on the same floor. It was a pain, but it was a necessity to fight at their best, which meant always keeping their base of operations on the same level as the front lines.

The necromancer was hunched over, looking half asleep and overall in a bad state. With only a few changes of clothing and no access to showers or comfortable beds, they both looked worse for wear. Even considering that, Jin-Woo looked awful. He’d been putting off sleep and using his mana faster than it could recover in his desperate push to escape the dungeon as quickly as possible.

“Hey, Princess was barking at me earlier, I take it we got the scroll for this level?”

The man barely looked up from where he sat. “Yeah, we should be able to get the next one started and get set up so the shadows can start searching while we sleep.”

“We both know that finding a good defensible position to sleep in can take a while. You’ve been running yourself ragged and you need actual rest.”

He just shook his head. “No, I can’t slow down. We don’t know how many floors there are and we can’t risk a dungeon break.”

“I agree that a dungeon break would be an unmitigated disaster, but I disagree on how to prevent it. I refuse to let you die because you’re too tired and drained of mana to fight back if something unexpected happens. We both know you’re the best defense our country has, if you die here then we’ll be in an even worse spot than if there’s a dungeon break but you’re able to help fight it off. So, here’s what’s going to happen, you’re going to go to bed and sleep as long as you need to recover and be back in top shape, and if I need to bribe you to make you follow orders then so be it.”

His eyes unintentionally glowed purple for a moment, getting frustrated with Jin-Woo’s perpetual lack of self preservation and self care.

“A bribe? I don’t want to be rude, but what is there in this place that anyone would want?”

“I’m sure you’ve noticed that there’s at least some plantlife, mostly weeds and mushrooms growing out of cracks in the cement.”

Jin-Woo looked over with a chuckle. “That’s your big plan, bribe me with some grass and probably deadly mushrooms?”

“No, I’m bribing you with the things that eat them.” With that he pulled a rabbit and two rats from behind his back. Not demons, not undead, not twisted beasts that are far deadlier than they look. These weren’t any kind of the Denizen’s of Chaos they’d seen the last ten years. Just regular animals. “Now, are you going to charge ahead and leave me to eat these by myself? Or are you going to rest and finally have something other than protein bars?”

Jin-Woo was nearly salivating at the thought of eating anything other than the nutritious but bland bars of food. “You- Uh, you drive a hard bargain. I think I’m going to go to sleep now.”

“That’s what I thought. Now, I think the needles from the spike demon should work fine as skewers since we don’t have much in the way of cooking supplies. It’ll take a while to get everything prepared but it should be ready once you wake up.”

Jin-Woo chuckled a little as he walked over to his sleeping bag. “Rat kabobs together next to a pit of hellfire? It’s a date.”

Those words would circle in his mind for hours as he went through the process of gutting the animals and preparing the meat. He logically knew that he was overthinking it, but his mind didn’t seem to care about what logically made sense. Maybe Jin-Woo did mean that it was a date, maybe the hunter had feelings for him in spite of his seemingly endless ignorance when it came to flirting and romantic feelings.

Then he’d remind himself that it was very obviously just a joke based on how unromantic their setting was. It had nothing to do with them or the feelings he had for the oblivious man. But then he’d loop around once more with the thought of ‘but what if it wasn’t a joke?’. Overall, it was a truly cruel kind of torture unknowingly inflicted by a lovable idiot.

Granted, all of that was internal and he maintained his perpetual calm and stoic demeanor that did his best to keep up. Sure, he’d slipped up a few times in the past month of being in this dungeon, but for the most part he kept himself together and now would be no exception.

Once most of it was set up, the meat, skewers, and the (non-hellfire) campfire, Jin-Woo was still resting soundly and would probably keep doing so for a while. He didn’t want to wake him up yet so he got some chores done, doing his best to clean their armor and clothes of all the soot and demon blood. He wasn’t particularly successful since he didn’t exactly have the tools for the job. The most he had available was water (from melted ice magic), a large metal bucket (from a large demon’s helmet), and a washcloth (from a weapon maintenance kit that was included in Jin-Woo’s supplies stored in his shadow).

His thoughts continued to spiral as he made sure their gear was in good order. He needed to get his shit together, this was not the time and place to have feelings. They were trapped in an S-ranked red-gate, which no one had ever survived, and would probably keep being trapped for the remaining 150 days. And even once they got out they would still be in the middle of a war with extra-dimensional beings. There was no time for hopeless romance in all of that. He just just needed to get ahold of himself-

“You okay there?”

The unexpectedly close voice made him jump up and spin around, finding Jin-Woo standing right behind him with a worried look. “You were glaring at that arm brace like it insulted you and your eyes are still glowing as if you were mid-fight.”

He took a deep breath and let his magic decrease in intensity until the crackling purple energy disappeared.

“Sorry about that, I just got lost in thought.”

The man gave an awkward laugh and scratched the back of his head. “I hope you weren’t thinking about me, because you were looking a bit murdery.”

He gave Jin-Woo a glare that didn’t have any real heat behind it. “That depends, are you going to keep charging ahead without any thought to your health?”

“Uh, I guess we can slow our pace a bit. I really thought you wanted us to get through the dungeon as quickly as possible to prevent a disastrous dungeon break? I know what you said earlier, but an S rank gate breaking in the middle of the city would be so bad, and there’s no way they’ll be able to evacuate far enough in just a week.”

“Yes. But not at the cost of your life.” It was an odd moment for Jin-Chul. He was a man that had dedicated himself to his country and protecting it from both dungeons and their own hunters. In the moment though, he realized that if he was forced to choose between the life of one man and his family or letting otherworldly monsters destroy his nation, he would hesitate.

He lived his life logically, but somehow the three other members of their little makeshift family had become as important to him as tens of millions of lives. It was an astounding revelation that forced him to accept how deeply he cared, not just in a romantic sense either. Jin-Woo, Jin-ah, and Song-Yi had become the family he’d never dared to hope for.

In the face of exploring his own feelings and coming to terms with just how serious this had become, he realized he nearly missed what Jin-Woo had just said.

“Right, because of my strategic value.” What hurt most was that he didn’t even sound like he was joking. Sure, he’d said it earlier, but that was mostly him just trying to rationalize and remain impartial when making decisions.

“In part, but mostly because I couldn’t stand to watch you die. Do you really not know how much you mean to me?” Holy shit, he actually said it. That wasn’t the plan at all. Just remain calm and hopefully Jin-Woo will brush it off and-

“That’s really nice of you. You’re a really good friend. You’re hard to read sometimes, but it’s nice to know I’m your best friend too.”

Somehow that was even worse. How could that man be both so intelligent but also so dumb at the same time. He felt a mixed desire between hugging him and punching him, so he just put his head in his hands. 

“Do you want me to do the cleaning for you?”

Jin-Chul really needed to lock in and pay more attention. “Huh, what did you day?”

“Just that you’re clearly thinking really hard about something and seem kind of mad, is it because I left you to do all the cleaning?”

He would absolutely take the offered out,“Yes.”

“Well, I really appreciate you taking the time so we don’t smell like demon guts, but don’t do it if it’s gonna make you have the murder glare. Also uhh, you’ve seemed to be in thought a lot today. Is it something you want to talk about?”

“No, not particularly.”

He just shrugged, accepting it as something weird but not pushing him on it. “Alright. I’ll trust your judgment, just let me know if that changes. Now, if we’re done with you glaring into the middle distance, I was promised rat-kabobs and I will not be denied.”

Jin-Chul chuckled slightly at his antics but pulled out the prepared skewers of meat and set them on the fire to cook. As if he could ever say no to the man that wormed his way into his heart without ever realizing what he’d done.

Chapter Text

Just over a month had passed by the time they reached the 39th floor. They were tired and had permanent back aches from sleeping on the hard ground. They weren’t sure if they were making good progress or not since they had no idea how many levels of this tower there were. If there were fifty, then they were doing great. If there were a thousand, they’d barely made a dent.

As expected, each floor was more difficult than the one before it, but it hadn’t been a sharp increase so far. It wasn’t pleasant to think about, but it was clear they had only faced civilians so far, rather than captured soldiers of the Denizens of Chaos’ army.

But this floor was strange. There were barely half the demons they’d been fighting before. There were a few here and there, but they were all the weakest sort, shambling around with their minds completely lost to the essence stones.

It took barely an hour to clear out the area and start searching for the scroll that would let them access the next one. Jin-Woo brought forth a bat-like demon that used echolocation and had been kept around specifically for its ability to find things. He also had Princess help, while she wasn’t much use at fighting, she was very good at sniffing things out and digging them up.

It took a few hours, but the magic paper was found under a collapsed building. It looked like it was recently collapsed too, since it hadn't quite settled yet. It was all very weird but there wasn’t anything that could be done about it yet.

This got more and more concerning though as the next floor was the same, and the one after that too.

Jin-Chul looked over with concern on his face. “I think they are retreating. Probably to gather their forces further back. Since they can’t destroy the scroll or take it to the next level they’re hiding them to buy time.”

He supposed that made sense. The scrolls that opened the way couldn’t come with them through the glowing pillar of light that brought them up to the next floor. It also explained why only the Denizens completely lost to madness were still around, they were so far gone they couldn’t even comprehend the order to pull back.

“Damn, we’re gonna have a bad time once we hit the level that they’ve all retreated to. When we go up we’ll need to be ready to immediately go back down.”

Jin-Chul nodded. “Until we find where they’ve set up their defenses I think we should send a shadow up first as a scout. One of the extra demons we’ve picked up, so you can just cut them if we can’t pull them back.”

“Alright then, I guess there’s nothing else we can do but keep going until we reach them. Do you think it’s the final boss that’s commanding them, or is that too optimistic?”

He just sighed, “I hope it’s the boss, I’m so tired of this place.”

They moved through levels with little resistance for the next two days, eventually reaching floor 49, looking at the entrance to number 50. They had sent up the shadow of a demon with a thick purple exoskeleton, it wasn’t good at offense but could take a beating and was a good choice for sending into a presumed ambush.

It quickly became clear that they’d assumed correctly as he looked through the demon’s eyes. On the other side was an army in the thousands at least, forming a circle around the magical entrance. The scout was destroyed within moments by a mix of magical and various rudimentary projectiles. Jin-Woo cut the connection since it would just be a drain on his mana as the shadow never got the chance to fully heal before being injured again.

He gave a nod to Jin-Chul. “Looks like we were right, they retreated and hunkered down next level. We might as well make camp, I doubt we’re getting past them anytime soon.”

They found a toppled skyscraper and started making something that would protect them from the elements and would be defendable just in case.

The next attempt was sending all of the S-class shadows to try and weaken the defenses. It was technically successful, but not to the degree they had hoped. The majority had stayed on top of their fortifications made of the ruined cityscape launching various ranged attacks, primarily fire magic. The defenses meant they could only reach the cannon fodder in the front lines, but those same weak fighters slowed them down enough for the more powerful demons to get in attacks from a distance. All together, this meant that the fights in open areas they’d had for the first 49 floors had suddenly become siege warfare.

From there things fell into a bit of a routine. The S-ranks, plus any ranged fighters, would attack until he fell to about one third of his mana before being recalled, then sent back out again once he was close to full. At the same time his main forces were doing a secondary sweep of all the floors they passed already. Anything of value was brought to the gate and any living demons were captured and brought up to Jinwoo.

That was the other main focus of his time, practicing the removal of essence stones. They’d learned how to remove them without killing the Denizen it was inside of, but he’d yet to achieve the incredible speed and timing needed to pull it off. He’d practice the motion of it over and over, and every three hours he’d try again with a new test subject, cutting them open to reveal the stone before touching it and teleporting away before the crystal registers that something’s wrong and kills the host.

 It wasn’t too often, but his summons also found the occasional rodent in their searches and would bring them over as well. They were delicious in comparison to the nutrient dense but bland protein bars they lived on. Not only that, but it meant they could stretch their food supply out a bit further than they expected.

At the same time, Jin-Chul kept practicing with his new skill and using the two shortswords he’d found. This meant a lot of running around, doing parkour, and meditating.

One week in, Jin-Chul was sitting with his friend and replacing the bandage on Jin-Woo’s shoulder. He gave the S-rank a look that made his current opinion known.

“Don’t give me that judgy look of yours. It was a perfectly good plan and took out a bunch of their mages.”

“Uh huh.”

“I don’t need you to keep giving me that ‘I told you so’ tone.”

“Well, I did in fact tell you so that you would get hurt. Maybe when you listen to my advice I’ll have reason to use a different tone.”

That plan in particular had been him sending the S-ranks like normal, except this time he was hiding underneath Spot, their giant three headed undead dog. He’d released the weakest fifty of his fighters that didn’t fit in his shadow ahead of time in preparation. Then, he had Baruka and Kargalgan focus on hitting those as far back as possible before using an Arise.

The good news was that it worked very well in sowing chaos by suddenly spawning forces behind their defensive lines. They dealt more damage in that one attack than they had in the past week combined. The bad news was that raising fifty powerful demon mages at the same time took a lot of mana, which was only two thirds full anyways by the time they’d killed enough for his attack to be as strong as possible. Which meant the last bit of his mana was completely drained as the summons he just created were damaged in the ensuing fight, since most of them were scattered across the army of demons.

Jin-Woo then passed out from mana-strain, and an unconscious necromancer is a very easy target for demons that like to throw fire at things. His armor held back most of it, but a particularly strong one hit his shoulder and heated his armor enough to burn him quite badly across his shoulder and the side of his neck.

They didn’t have a lot of medical supplies, so Jin-Chul always washed and reused the bandages, doing his best to sterilize them in boiling water. Having an infection could be bad on its own, but having one in a red-gate with no healers would potentially be a death sentence. So, despite his many complaints about Jin-Woo being an idiot, Jin-Chul made sure to keep the wound as clean as humanly possible given what he had available.

“I really appreciate this. That you’re helping even though you told me it was a dangerous idea and I ignored you.”

Jin-Chul glared at his favorite dumbass who just gave him an apologetic smile. “You can show your thanks by taking better care of yourself. If nothing else, I’m hoping that scar will remind you to be less reckless.”

After another week they’d been able to capitalize on that progress and had beaten most of the defenses. ‘Most’ being the key word. The remaining forces were elite fighters and a demon the size of a building that was almost certainly the boss that had rallied the troops. He was not only taller than most buildings, but wider than them too, a red giant that had been eating every time their undead scouts got a look at him and had a body to match his habits.

Each of the ten guards were on the low end of S rank, slightly above where Jin-Chul was in terms of overall power. There were also another hundred of their best mages, ready to unleash hellfire on whoever approached. Luckily, they mostly just hung back unless you were directly attacking the big one, who they gathered was called ‘Vulcan the Avaricious’ since he shouted at them in the third person a lot once the shadows actually got far enough to be within shouting range

They’d cleared the main fortifications and all but the last holdouts were gone, but all progress had ground to a complete halt. Instead of being able to slowly work through a wave of demons, any attempt of attack by summons would lead to them being immediately obliterated by Vulcan and his guards, forcing them to retreat to preserve mana.

If they were facing either his remaining guards or Vulcan himself, they’d probably be able to manage it, but with them covering each other they came to a standstill.

It was the beginning of day 50 when Jin-Chul proposed a plan that he very much disliked.

“You were upset about me taking risks and then propose this as a plan? You’ll get slaughtered.”

“I won’t. You know I’ve been practicing, and it will mean we can finally make some progress. If this works we can finally move past that blockade. We’re almost halfway through our food and we know Vulcan isn’t the end since there’s a way up to a higher floor right behind their camp. Unless you have a better plan, this is our best move to make sure we won’t starve before we get out of here.”

Jin-Woo gave a frustrated sigh. “Fine! But I don’t like it, and you’re taking as many shadows with you as possible.”

Jin-Chul agreed and got ready for battle. A few hours later he stood at the pedestal with a handful of S-rank shadows around him with just about every other summon hiding in his shadow. Jin-Woo had come over and given him a tentative hug.

“You better come back. If you die out there I’ll kick your ass.” A threat that had much more validity coming from a necromancer.

Jin-Chul just gave a serious nod, not trusting himself to speak. He sat down cross legged and cleared his mind, eventually entering a meditative state. Once he felt completely grounded and at peace he let himself drift away from reality, becoming invisible and silent as Stealth activated.

They were deposited on the 50th floor, the S rank summons running off to be a distraction as he just sat there for a few more moments before getting up and walking towards his targets.

If he felt any desire to kill, or ‘bloodlust’, the demons would notice him instantly and would tear him to pieces. He’d trained endlessly for nearly two months in order to be so calm and clear minded that he felt no aggression even as he made his way to his target. He didn’t run or leap from one pile of rubble to another. He simply walked with no rush or anticipation.

He focused on thinking of himself not as a person, but as another aspect of nature. A disease has no malice, and avalanche has no rage, they are simply occurrences that frequently leave death in their wake. Nature can be violent, but it is not malicious. Without a drop of malic in his heart, he walked around the shadows and demons tearing into each other. The ever vigilant guards never catching a trace of the man mere feet away as he continued on his way.

Jin-Chul walked around to the back of Vulcan’s throne, where the massive demon sat up against the towering bone structure. He climbed to the top over the course of a few minutes until he stood above the giant. The shadows had retreated and Vulcan gave a roar of triumph, but remained settled in his throne as Jin-Chul drew two metal spears, one in each hand and a sword on his back.

With a final deep breath he took a leap forward into open air and let himself fall like a bolt of lightning from the sky. He felt no rage or enjoyment as electrified spears were driven into two of Vulcan’s three eyes, with the third following swiftly as the steel longsword pierced it.

And with that, he slid to the ground off the screaming demon and walked back towards a nearby pile of half crushed buildings. The moment he was out of sight he dropped Stealth for just a few seconds. Since Jin-Woo couldn’t contact or sense his summons while in the shadow of someone Stealthing, dropping the skill was the signal for the hundred undead creatures to surge forward and attack from out of the patch of darkness.

With Vulcan badly wounded and blinded and the sudden appearance of an undead army behind their lines of defense (again), the remaining demons were defeated as the S-ranks made a swift return and fought alongside the undead shadow horde.

As he started to stumble back, completely exhausted and drained of mana, one final shadow hopped out. Princess stood close so he could use her as support as they walked back, finding Jin-Woo in a similarly exhausted state, but they were victorious at last.

Chapter Text

Jinah was leaning forward on the couch as she played a new racing game, giving it all of her attention through a particularly difficult round. This included ignoring Song-Yi, who was maybe saying something. “Give me a sec, I’m busy kicking incredible amounts of ass.” After a few minutes of totally not losing she did her best not to look at her friend who was smirking at her.

“Is that what kicking ass looks like now? They must have changed the definition on me.”

“Ha, ha, very funny. Anyways, what did you want?”

Song-Yi sat on the couch with her, lounging back. “I’m pretty sure that the guys are trapped in a red gate again.”

Jinah snapped her head to the side. “What?! What happened?!”

“Woah, calm down girl. I’m not even positive, I just think there’s a pretty good chance. They said they’d go on a raid today, right? And he’s literally gotten in red gates twice in a row, even though it’s like a two percent chance.”

“Don’t freak me out like that! I know he has freakishly bad luck, but they’re still pretty rare. Any other wisdom that made you think that?”

“Well… the shadow salamander thing that he left to protect us is pacing on the ceiling like it’s girlfriend just said ‘we need to talk’.”

Jinah looked up and saw the very anxious salamander that was about 4 feet long and had gone completely unnoticed while she was gaming. She accepted that Song-Yi was probably right about the gate being weird in some way so they called the KHA.

It turned out that Song-Yi’s hunch was right, the vortex hovering right in the middle of the sidewalk was a deep, almost blood red color. There wasn’t much they could do though, so they just sat on the ground outside the cordoned off area and waited as various government officials went in and out.

There was still concern over the fact that their mana readers couldn’t seem to work on the thing. They held a portable one right up against the swirling red disk, and you’d think it wasn’t there at all based on mana signatures. On the other hand, it had been an hour and any gate that could hold up against an S ranked hunter for a full day had to be at least A rank.

At least, that’s what they were thinking for the first two hours. All of the government agents were more focused on whatever he would bring back rather than any danger he could be in. The lack of mana was an oddity, but not a major concern since the hunters inside were two of the strongest in the nation. After the last red gate he’d been in, they had wanted to be prepared and had an overabundance of work crews and trucks ready to haul away the valuable resources.

That positive and almost manic energy slowly drained from the area. People were starting to look a bit worried and antsy at hour five, and downright alarmed at hour seven. Something that could hold up Jin-Woo for a day was a gold mine, something that held up for a week was a genuine threat.

It was about two in the morning when Song-Yi convinced her that they should go home.

“I stand by what I said. I think he’ll be just fine. For all we know he found a great place to train and is using the weird time stuff to get six months practice into a week. But us being tired with aching backs won’t help anyone. It sucks, but all we can do is be there for them when they get back.”

She gave a small nod. “It just makes me anxious, you know? I get why he does, but I wish he’d stop going in the gates all together and just stick to the office.”

After five or six hours of restless sleep and taking care of other basic needs like eating and showering, they went back to the portal, wanting to be there when he got back.

By the time they got there it was hour twelve and the government was preparing to evacuate a few blocks of the city if it didn’t open within the next few hours. An A ranked gate breaking would be incredibly dangerous, even if there were S ranked hunters on hand, especially if it’s an A rank that’s giving her brother so much trouble. They tried to go back to where they’d been sitting before but were stopped by men in suits standing around, keeping civilians and reporters away from the portal.

“No unauthorized personnel past this point, you have to stand back with everyone else.” Gesturing towards the eager reporters.

Song-Yi was the first to raise her voice, “What?! Who do you think you are!? We’ll go in there if we damn well want to!”

The man didn’t respond or seem like he was about to change his mind until an older guy in a suit walked up to them with a gentle smile. “Don’t worry, they’re with me.”

At first Jin-Ah didn’t recognize him and thought he was a creep (that they were certainly not with), until she realized he was the Chairman of the HA. They walked in silence for a few moments past scientists taking notes and hunters standing guard before he spoke to the two girls.

“I hope they didn’t hold you up too long, the perimeter is mostly just for show anyways.”

Jin-Ah looked up at him in confusion, “Huh? Whatcha mean?”

“We know exactly when this gate formed, so we know it’s not a threat to the public until a week has passed. But the public is frightened, so they need to see us doing something, even if there’s nothing to be done that can’t be done in our offices.”

That’s what always came down to, wasn’t it. There was nothing she could do, or anyone else for that matter. Every time her brother was facing impossible odds, she couldn’t do a damn thing beyond staying safe so he didn’t have to worry about her on top of everything else.

Honestly, she was mostly zoned out, with Song-Yi doing the talking as they were led into the tent that was serving as their temporary command center. All she could think about was her brother, trapped in a dungeon just like their father was. The hope that they could come back slowly fading as hours turned to days, then weeks, then years. The only thing on the other side of the damn portals was death.

She had already lost most of her family to this war with otherworldly and magical beings, would it take even more from her? Her father died inside a dungeon he couldn’t escape in time. Her mother fell into an eternal sleep from too much exposure to mana. She’d thought she’d lost her brother multiple times before, when the association called and she had to hope it was a notification he was in the hospital again and not the morgue.

Her brother had been in and out of the hospital enough that she knew how to deal with him disappearing for a few days and being unsure if he’d survive. It was an awful feeling, but it was one she was used to. She loved her brother, and part of loving him meant being desensitized to him running into danger and being at risk of being left behind.

But Jin-Chul… Jin-Chul being involved made it even harder than it normally was. Over the last few months the bureaucrat had wormed his way into their family and functioned as a second guardian at times. More than that, he felt safe. Not as in that she felt safe around him (though that was also true), but in the fact that he lived a very safe life. He was clearly comfortable being a paper pusher and didn’t run into danger like her brother did. So there was a morbid sense of security in thinking that if Jin-Woo bit off more than he could chew they at least wouldn’t lose him too.

But in the midst of this nightmare he managed to prove her wrong. First he was attacked and nearly killed in the street by the rogue hunter, now he was trapped in an S rank gate. It wasn’t hard to guess that it was probably an S-rank gate, but no one wanted to say it or admit just how bad things could go.

No one had ever escaped an S ranked red gate. It wasn’t hard to imagine what would happen next. The gate would turn blue, but it wouldn’t start to close. All the other S ranks on stand-by would charge in and save the day even if they took heavy losses But her brother and Jin-Chul would still be dead. It would be like after mom fell asleep, except this time it would be her and Song-Yi instead of her and her brother.

They wouldn’t have Jin-Woo supporting them anymore, and Jin-Chul being her god-parent wouldn’t matter if he was dead, so they’d both have to drop out from school and try to get work. They were teenagers with no experience so that was unlikely to pan out and Song-Yi would have no choice to be a hunter like she’d first planned. Eventually the gates would take Song-Yi from her too until it was just Jinah, surrounded by the empty graves of everyone that tried to provide and take care of her.

She was briefly pulled out of her spiraling thoughts as she heard Song-Yi yelling at the Chairman.

“Sure, sounds fine and dandy. I got a counter offer for you. Go fuck yourself!”

Go Gunhee remained calm and composed as she screamed in his face. “I understand that this has been very stressful, but I would greatly appreciate your assistance on this. I hope that it won’t be necessary, but it is good to be prepared-”

“Are you prepared for my foot to be so far up your ass you're clipping my toenails with your teeth?”

Jinah had to give her points for creativity if nothing else. She honestly didn’t know what was going on, but just wanted to go home regardless. She gently tugged on Song-Yi’s sleeve, getting her attention.

Her words were barely above a whisper as she looked at her friend. “Can we just leave? I don’t want to be here anymore.”

That was how the two girls differed. When something awful happened Jinah either laughed it off or retreated into herself if it was really bad. On the other hand, Song-Yi got loud and aggressive as a defense mechanism, like a stray cat biting anyone who tried to get close.

Not wanting to deal with the bus or asking someone there for a ride, they just rode the shadow salamander home. Even when they got home Jinah was quiet for a while, trying to hide how desperate and hopeless she felt.

“Um, what did he want anyways? I wasn’t exactly listening when he said whatever made you so mad.”

“Huh? Oh, he wanted us to take control of those suits of armor your big bro summoned. We’re the only people that his shadows have been told to obey and there’s like a thousand of the things sitting in a warehouse. But I told him to fuck off for trying to get our family even more involved in this bullshit.”

She nodded slowly. She supposed it made sense. Everyone was getting scared and they were trying to get as many defenses ready as possible in case the dungeon broke.

After a few minutes of sulking/raging a knock came from the door.

“I swear to fuck’s sake if that’s the government I’m going to stab a bitch. Specifically the bitch knocking on my goddamn door.”

“I do technically work for the government, but I’m not here on their behalf. I’d prefer you don’t stab me,” the man gave a long and dramatic sigh, “but I suppose you just have to take risks sometimes.”

It took her a moment to recognize the voice, putting a hand on Song-Yi’s shoulder once she did. She looked back in confusion and tentatively lowered the knife. Song-Yi had already grabbed one of Jin-Woo’s spare knives, which was an A rank weapon that could probably cut through steel even in her hands. She was ready to throw down and wanted to know why she was being held back.

“I think that’s Chi-Yul, I’ve met him a few times, he’s Jin-Woo’s friend.”

The door then unlocked and opened slowly as the one armed man stepped into the apartment, spare key in hand and a grocery bag hanging on his shoulder. “That’s right. Now, I’m hoping you’re not actually going to try and stab me. I’m a cripple after all, so it wouldn’t be a fair fight at all.”

He was right, it wouldn’t be even close to a fair fight. Song-Yi looked him up and down, it wasn’t hard to tell that this guy would be able to kick her ass, no matter how many arms he had. That wasn’t saying too much among hunters, she didn’t stand a chance against any hunter D class and up, but that wouldn’t stop her from sizing him up and thinking about it really hard.

“You know, when Sung asked me to keep an eye on you two if something went wrong, he should have warned me about your feelings on stabbing people that come to the door.” He shook his head and chuckled a little. “Sorry for intruding, yes, I’m Song Chi-Yul, I know Jin-Woo through work, both when he was an E-ranker and now. I’d be your legal guardian if something happens to both Jin-Chul and Jin-Woo. Now, can you put down the knife?”

“Well, we don’t need whatever you’re here for, so you can fuck right off. They’ll be back in a few days, so don’t go around assuming they’re already dead, you piece of shit.”

“Let’s not jump the gun. I’ve seen that boy come out of some pretty hopeless situations before and I’m assuming he’ll come out of this one too. But you’re also two teenagers during a potential national emergency and I don’t feel comfortable leaving you to fend for yourselves.”

He held up the bag, “Besides, I brought sandwiches. You weren’t here the first time I came by, so I went and got some food for you two so there was one less thing to worry about.”

Jinah just walked off as Song-Yi continued to be as hostile as possible while Chi-Yul just politely stood his ground, refusing to leave and allowing her to just rant and rage at him.

Things mostly stayed like that for the next couple days. Jinah stayed in a daze for the most part, barely aware of her surroundings as she waited to find out if her brother would live or die. Song-Yi only got more aggressive in the face of fear and uncertainty, going as far as to take a swing at Chi-Yul a few times.

By day three it was officially classified as an S rank red gate. After that they’d finally done what the Chairman asked and ordered the handful of shadow mages to move their warehouse of knights into twenty different trailers, each holding fifty knights, so they’d be ready to deploy if needed. But that had only been a short distraction before they were back to where they’d started.

On day four there was news. Not news about the gate, which was still the same swirling red blockade that kept her brother and Jin-Chul away from home.

She realized it had now been over a hundred days for them, Jin-Woo would be twenty five now. Instead of being six and half years older than her, he was seven years older. She didn’t know what that would mean or if it mattered, but she knew she didn’t like it. Would they still look the same? Would they have new scars? Facial hair? Missing more limbs?

She shook her head to regain focus. She’d let herself get pulled into her own thoughts again. 

As if things weren’t bad enough, there was now a second S-rank threat. More accurately, an S rank threat had come back. The ants that had been trapped on Jeju island for nearly a decade  had evolved wings and started to attack.

There hadn’t been too many sightings of the flying ants so far, but it was fair to assume that there would only be more and more over time as the old not-flying ants died out and were replaced by these new, worse ants.

No one knew what to do or where to go. People in the north were being told to evacuate south to get away from the S gate, and people in the south were told to evacuate north to escape the threat of being eaten alive by ants.

The airports were running constantly as everyone who could was fleeing to other countries. If things continued and they reached day 6, Song-Yi, Chi-Yul, and herself would be on a plane to Turkey. They were lucky enough to get seats, but a lot of people didn’t have the money or influence to get out as danger loomed over the country. 

Unless something changed soon, South Korea wouldn’t exist within a week or two.

Chapter Text

It was day ninety one, and they had reached floor seventy. They’d only just passed the halfway point until the dungeon broke and it seemed to be a fair guess that there were 100 floors, but they could hope it was far less. The difficulty of each floor had increased rapidly after beating the boss at floor fifty and slowed them down to taking about two days each level, which was nearly a fourth of their previous speed.

Even though they'd been going slower, they had been making good progress until the most recent battle. Now they were just doing whatever they could to recover from their first true defeat.

Jin-Woo laid on his side and stared at the wall of the dilapidated office building they were hunkered down in. His breath was short, each inhale bringing his varying amounts of pain, but deep breaths were even worse.

He was pretty sure his ribs were broken, his left shoulder had been dislocated and popped back into place, his ankle was badly sprained, and he almost certainly had a concussion. He looked to his left where Jin-Chul was also pretending to be asleep.

The man to his side was even worse off than he was. He had three slashes across his torso, numerous bruises, a badly broken arm, a stabbed leg, and a broken nose. Unfortunately, they didn’t have any medical supplies left to patch either of them up with anything other than Jin-Woo’s shirt, which had been torn up to make bandages. That was a bit of a misnomer, they didn’t have any supplies left, which included first aid kits.

Yet, somehow, as he stared into the distance blankly, none of those issues were what was filling every corner of his mind.

They had been making their way through floor seventy when everything went wrong, mostly just because of bad luck. They’d been pushing hard, trying to make as much progress as possible. They only had a month or so of food left and needed to either clear the dungeon or find a floor with food, or else hunger would kill them long before any demon did. Because of that, he hadn’t given his mana time to replenish and they’d gone in with him at just over a third of reserves.

They’d gotten quite a bit stronger since facing Vulcan the month prior. He hadn’t been able to make a shadow out of him, but he did get his hands on Vulcan’s magic orb, which increased magical power by 50%. When he held it he could have way more summons, both in and out of his shadow, bringing his total shadow army to about two hundred. On top of that, almost his entire army was now on the low end of S rank in strength, so he luckily didn’t have to heal them as often.

Things had been going fine, if a bit slow. The summons were in two groups, he kept a handful of his strongest back in a defensive position, while the swarm of about a hundred undead demons were sent to charge ahead and clear a path. After an hour or two of things continuing as normal, everything went to shit in the space of just a few seconds.

His offensive group had been fighting in a city center when a stray blast of magic exploded against the base of a nearby skyscraper. The towering structure had been on its last legs and that had been the final straw that sent it tumbling to the ground. If that wasn’t bad enough, the destructive force from thousands of tons striking the road was enough to fully collapse the street, creating a new pit of hellfire that swallowed anything that had been able to dodge the falling building.

Before he’d even had a chance to realize what was happening, his mana dropped to zero as it desperately tried to heal the shadows that were crushed and/or burning. Within moments he began losing his undead to the void as he didn’t have the magic left to reform the destroyed shadows. The souls of all one hundred and three Denizens were now beyond his reach, cutting his army in half, and the rest in danger of being sent into the void with his mana reserves empty.

It was clear they needed to retreat, but they hadn’t set up a base on this floor yet and were about an hour away from the gate that would let them back down a level. Well, an hour if Jin-Woo could move at his normal speeds. While his telekinesis was amazing and used very little mana in order to hover, it didn’t use zero. The moment he ran out of mana his hovering cut out and he dropped back to his feet. The fake leg meant it was much harder than normal to catch himself properly, causing him to slip and roll his ankle.

It was probably sprained at worst, but when you only have one ankle and you’re in the middle of a fight, it means that you aren’t going anywhere anytime soon. To make matters worse, the sound from the collapse got the attention of every demon in the cityscape. Jin-Chul scooped him up in his arms without a second thought and started running for the exit as a chorus of demons roaring and screaming began to form.

He called his griffon, giant bat, and other flying summons over in hopes of flying away. That hope was crushed as the giant bat was destroyed in a single shot, the strongest demon on the floor making herself known.

Atop a towering building was a ten foot tall woman(?) with purple skin and a massive bow. The airborne undead were shot down from the sky before they had a chance to counterattack or take cover. Arrows made from abnormally large bones rained down on his retreating summons, thinning his defenses even further.

They’d jumped on the back of his giant millipede shadow, but it was killed from underneath them before they made any meaningful distance. He mentally called out to his own long range fighter, the ice elf Baruka, to fire back and deal with her. They’d never make progress if they kept needing to dive for cover, even if the elf didn’t kill her he’d at least draw enough attention for them to escape.

The Orb of Avarice wasn’t doing him much good since he wasn’t in a position to cast spells and was far below his limit of shadows at this point, so he tossed it to Kargalgan. With his magic boosted, the orc released a combination of Hymn of the Giants and Hymn of the Fire Dragon, spraying out a wave of fire that held back the oncoming forces.

He looked through Baruka’s eyes to witness him defeating the archer, spears of ice finally breaking her bow before piercing her heart. The success wasn’t without serious injuries though, leaving Baruka worn down and an easy target. The last thing he saw through the elf’s eyes was a swarm of about a dozen flying demons that had wings like a dragonfly and a white exoskeleton wreathed in bloodied spikes, particularly their tail, which had barbs over a foot long.

Normally this wouldn’t be a significant issue, he had enough ranged fighters to knock them out of the sky and pick off any that survived the fall. Had, being the key word here. Kargalgan was his only remaining ranged fighter of any real strength and was busy holding back just about everything else.

If they kept at their current pace of Jin-Chul running while carrying Jin-Woo, the swarm would be on them in a minute or two. Kargalgan and a handful of S rank undead demons were holding back the ground forces and everything else was retreating with them, so they only needed to worry about the fliers for now.

They got the back of his fastest of the remaining summons, a six legged horse that could light itself on fire at will, bounding ahead of both friend and foe. This turned out to be a less than genius decision after about fifteen minutes of galloping through the wasteland at high speeds.

The upside of traveling so quickly was that they were able to stay ahead of the flying demons for most of the way there; they would have reached it if they’d had even just one more minute. The down side was that when the demons finally caught up to them and slapped them both off the horse, reinforcements were at least ten minutes behind them.

Through the eyes of his shadows, he saw Kargalgan had managed to knock a building over as an impromptu barricade and had started retreating as well. So all they had to do was either escape (very unlikely), defeat nearly a dozen flying demons with no support (super unlikely), or survive for ten minutes and they would be able to retreat with whatever forces remained (pretty damn unlikely).

They hit a stone wall hard enough to turn it into rubble. On impact his right shoulder made an unpleasant pop as it came out of its socket accompanied by the crack of his ribs almost certainly breaking. A quick look told him Jin-Chul’s left arm had broken too, either that or he’d gained a new joint in the middle of his forearm.

Through all the chaos he felt an odd sense of clarity.

“You need to go right now. I know you don’t want to, but you need to leave me behind. I can’t move and your stealth will only cover you. You can still make it out of here.”

Jin-Chul slowly rose from the ground and drew a shortsword. “I’m not going anywhere. Either we both get out or neither of us do.” His words were like steel as he stood between Jin-Woo and the demons.

As the closest demon swooped in the attack he sliced it across the arm with a shortsword, not deep but enough for the electric charge to make it fall to the ground. It only took that moment of vulnerability for him to deliver a more fatal blow to its neck.

On the next attack he parried with his sword and delivered an electrified kick, which stunned it but he didn’t have enough time to land a killing strike before he was attacked again.

The flaming horse had managed to defeat one of them before going down and evaporating into nothingness. That left nine of the demons remaining and no summons nearby that could help.

Jin-Woo wanted to scream at him to run, to stop trying to save him and just save himself, but he knew Jin-Chul wouldn’t change his mind and it would only serve to distract him.

Jin-Chul fought by going in and out of stealth, using it enough to evade attacks, but not so much that they would target Jin-Woo instead. He also had to worry about burning through all his mana so he used it as sparingly as possible. He’d gotten pushed further and further back until he was standing barely a few feet in front of Jin-Woo, who hadn’t been able to move more than maneuvering so his back was to a wall.

Jin-Woo watched in horror as a claw slipped by his sword and slashed a long gash across Jin-Chul’s chest. With his defenses broken the open mouth of one demon came at Jin-Chul from the side, if the attack landed it would be the end of him. In an act of desperation he sent out the final summon he had, even if it wasn’t made for combat in the slightest.

Golem, his first summon that acted as his porter and held all their gear, appeared between Jin-Chul and the incoming attack. In that brief moment of distraction he reached out and grabbed the back of Jin-Chul’s shirt, pulling him out of their reach and into his arms. It only gave them an extra few seconds to survive. There were quickly three different barbed tails prepared to strike them down and kill them both instantly.

His magic had run long since run out, but he didn’t care about something as petty as logic or limits. He stretched his telekinesis far beyond what he should be able to do and focused all of it into the rocky debris strewn around them. He lifted at least twenty tons of rock and flung it at their attackers with all the strength left in his body. Enough dust was kicked up that he couldn’t see them anymore, but he doubted it got all of them, if nothing else it bought them a little more time.

He collapsed against the wall behind him and looked at the wounded man in his arms. His voice came out in a weak rasp as his body was struggling to handle the strain he’d put on it.

“Please. I’m begging you to run. Don’t die here.”

Jin-Chul looked deep into his eyes and seemed to think for a brief moment before making a decision. Jin-Chul leaned in and gently caressed his face before kissing him softly. Their lips pressed together ever so lightly before Jin-Chul pulled back slightly, his words barely above a whisper. “I’m so sorry Jin-Woo, but I can’t do that. How could I not do everything I can to save the man I love?” He stood back up and raised his sword one more time. “Princess! Get him to the gate!”

While he was still in shock, Princess rose up underneath him from Jin-Chul’s shadow and took off running with Jin-Woo on her back.

Everything in him wanted to scream at her to turn back, but he couldn’t let his sacrifice be in vain. Not to mention he wasn’t sure he even had the energy to speak at this point, simply draped over her back like a sack of potatoes.

He had no idea how much time had passed before they’d reached the glowing circle that let them back to the floor below. Princess moved slower once they were back to safety, bringing him over to where their previous base had been for the last few days.

He laid on the ground and held Princess in his arms as he frantically looked through the eyes of his remaining summons. There was nothing much of relevance, just running through the deserted and desecrated city, those in the rear keeping a solid lead ahead of the demon horde chasing them.

After a minute or so he saw through the eyes of Spot, the three headed dog finding a badly wounded Woo Jin-Chul leaning against a building as the final three demons circled him, looking for an opening. The massive beast charged ahead at full speed and tore them to shreds in an instant, the already injured demons standing no chance against the furious S-ranked dog.

Igris was the next to arrive. Gently picking up Jin-Chul in his arms and making his way to the exit with the rest of the shadows. The A-ranked hunter lost consciousness for a few minutes, but was at least partially awake by the time he was being placed on the ground next to Jin-Woo.

They sat in silence as they recovered from the shock of the failed battle. Igris helped relocate his shoulder and turned Jin-Woo’s shirt into bandages to help stem the bleeding from Jin-Chul’s various wounds. The undead knight was surprisingly good at first aid, but he supposed that made sense if he’d been an actual knight with other soldiers at some point.

When all of the shadows had returned, he’d gone from having 225 total undead to 51, and six of those were outside the portal.

He could tell the loss of Golem would hit him hard once it had actually processed. Golem was his first summon and a constant ally throughout all the insanity since then. Tactically, losing all their flyers was devastating. The inability to easily scout from above would hamper them significantly until they could replace that position. However, the greatest loss of all was Baruka, not because of his strength or any sentimental reason, even if those were factors as well. The real loss was that he was their only consistent course of water, and he doubted they were going to find demons with ice conjuring magic wandering around the flaming tower.

Without access to water, clean or otherwise, their time limit for finding resources went from a few weeks to a few days, maybe a little longer depending on what supplies they could salvage from the level they’d just escaped from.

Somehow though, their impending doom was an afterthought. His mind just kept circling what Jin-Chul had said, how the kiss had felt. It was pretty clear that he hadn’t expected to survive the fight and have to talk about it later, since Jin-Chul was ignoring what happened even more than Jin-Woo was.

What did it mean? Sure, he made it pretty clear that he was in love, but there were lots of kinds of love and that meant different things to different people. Maybe he was just expressing how deep their friendship went? Some people probably kissed their friends. Yeah, that probably wasn’t it.

What did either of them want from here? Did Jin-Chul want something romantic, something more than that? Then there was the even harder question of what he himself wanted. The idea of kissing Jin-Chul again was confusing and left him conflicted. The thought of anything beyond kissing wasn’t something he’d considered in the slightest and he was very happy to leave it unconsidered.

Yeah, he probably didn’t want that at least. But at the same time, the idea of a life with zero Jin-Chul in it was even worse. Everything was so confusing and he had no idea how he felt, let alone how to explain how he felt. He wasn’t upset with Jin-Chul but also didn’t have an answer to the implied questions, if an answer was even wanted. He’d come so close to watching his closest friend die and was terrified of losing him, whether that be through death or just growing apart.

He turned so he was on his back, giving up on the pretense of pretending to sleep. He stopped trying to find the words and decided on action instead. He reached over and slowly took Jin-Chul’s hand in his. He felt him startle a bit at the contact, but seemed content just to just lay there, not pulling away or pushing for more.

Eventually, he fell asleep like that. Comforted by feeling the gentle pulse reassuring him that his friend was safe and still alive, that the worst hadn’t come to pass and they’d be alive to figure things out later.

Chapter Text

The next day was spent doing nothing but laying there and giving their bodies time to recover. It was a far cry from being okay, but being high ranked hunters meant they were healed enough that they do things like stand a walk. It had also been a good chance for his mana stores to begin rebuilding.

After the recent disaster he’d prefer waiting until he was back to full, but they just couldn't wait any longer than absolutely necessary to go and retrieve whatever supplies they could. Luckily, during said disaster they’d managed to wipe out most of the demons on the level as well and the fight was fairly easy when he had his magic and they weren’t the ones being ambushed.

That day was spent conquering the level and then reclaiming and organizing their supplies. Unfortunately there wasn’t much left to organize.

The sum total of all their remaining possessions were: four days of food. Two days of water. Two pairs of disgustingly dirty underwear. Two pairs of shorts that used to be pants before being turned into bandages. Ten daggers (Jin-Woo’s). Fifty feet of rope. A steel shortsword (Jin-Chul’s). Three boots. The Orb of Avarice. A pile of dirty bandages made from their shirts and pants. And finally, a mishmash of scavenged armor that certainly didn’t fit well or provide the best coverage, but it was something, since their original armors were very much destroyed by this point.

And that was it. They quite literally had nothing else.

With their time limit very suddenly shortened they had to change their approach. First, he raised three of the flying demons, he considered raising as many as possible, but he just didn’t have the mana or time to spare. Going forward, instead of fighting through all of the demons, they’d focus on sneaking past the enemies and using the new flying demons to scout out the scroll.

This would put them at risk of not being able to retreat if something went wrong, but at this point, if nothing changed, they’d be dead within the week anyways.

Once a summon found the scroll, Jin-Chul would use Stealth to reach the gate and Jin-Woo would fly there as high and fast as possible, avoiding combat altogether. The strategy was working fairly well, all things considered. He’d gained a few new cuts and burns from projectiles, but they were manageable.

On day five they reached floor seventy four. Which was a good pace for being able to conserve as much mana as possible, but it didn’t change the fact that they hadn’t found any food or water. They were currently hiding on the roof of a skyscraper, which you couldn’t reach without flying, protecting them from most of the demons. They sat around a small campfire they’d made with a demon corpse next to them.

Jin-Woo looked over at Jin-Chul as they held hands, his voice raspy from thirst. “This is probably going to kill us.”

“Yeah. Probably. But we have to try anyway.”

He nodded and carved up the rhino-esc demon, doing his best not to think about how very poisonous the nearly black blood looked. He poured it into rudimentary bowls made from scrap metal. What Jin-Chul said was true, they didn’t have any other options. The blood of a demon was almost certainly a deadly source of water, but having no source of hydration was a certain death, rather than almost certain. So that was how they ended up eating demon meat and drinking its blood.

It was without question the most revolting thing he’d ever put in his body. It took a lot of effort not to vomit it up, but that would mean he’d just have to eat it again. No matter how disgusting it was, it was better than the pain of starving or dehydrating to death. Which left it as an odd combination of being a sense of relief to get any sort of liquid, but simultaneously, his body clearly knew that whatever he’d just consumed clearly wasn’t meant for to be put inside a human body. It was like using motor oil to quench your thirst after crawling through a desert.

For a few hours they simply laid there in each other's arms, a fact that they most certainly had no intention to acknowledge or bring attention to, as their bodies settled. Eventually they slept, and hoped that it wouldn’t be as fatal as they feared.

The next day the process was repeated and they moved to the next level. It didn’t have the food or water they were hoping for, but level 75 was still an undeniable boon. He had his summons scout ahead and found an expansive field of skeleton knights, ghouls, specters, wraiths, floating skulls, and even what looked like a few vampires. It was quite clearly an undead army, and a formidable looking one at that, which was unexpected for a tower of demons since he knew they were led by different monarchs.

But what truly stood out was that they were all on one knee, more than a few staring reverently(?) at his undead demon scouting overhead. He had no idea what it meant, but could only hope it was a good thing.

When they stepped out of the gate, all remained kneeling except for one, who approached them with a confident stride. A fifteen foot tall skeleton with glowing red eyes wearing a flowing robe and a horned helmet, both made of shadows. To top it off, they wore a necklace made of spines, golden bracelets, and a cape made of actual fabric over the shadow robes. Overall, it was a pretty bold look.

The skeleton bowed low and spoke. The being’s words flowed out like a cello being strummed rather than an actual voice. It was likely created through magic, since their jaw never moved.

“I am honored to be in your presence, fragment of my Monarch. I can see you do not recognize me and it saddens me that you don’t have his memories, though I suppose that was little more than a wishful hope. In that case I suppose I should introduce myself.”

They stood up to their full height. It was hard to tell exactly how they were feeling since they didn’t have facial expressions, but they seemed quite pleased overall.

“My name is Metus the Lich Queen. I was one of the Ashborns five generals and a close confidant. I met him not long after his first death and was there for his second. I was his apprentice for over five centuries until his final moments. While I assumed he would always return in one form or another, I was not expecting him to hide a fragment of his soul in a human.”

There was so much there to break down, one being that apparently the giant skeleton was a woman and royalty at that. Even more shocking was the fact that they might have actually found an ally. He hovered over and sat on a chunk of rubble. “My name is Sung Jin-Woo. I gained his fragment a few months ago. This is my-” He quickly realized he’d backed himself into a corner, friend felt wrong, but anything stronger felt presumptuous and far too fast. “Jin-Chul.”

Well, that wasn’t better either. A quick glance from the other hunter showed that he felt equally surprised by the phrase ‘this is my Jin-Chul’. 

A low and wavering laugh flowed through the air. “There is something encouraging about seeing you weakened and unsure. No matter what I learned of your magics or or how much I practiced, the Ashborn was an unreachable goal that none could match. To see one so powerful become so weak, it is both pleasant and frightening at the same time.”

Jin-Woo had no idea what to say to the giant skeleton woman. Luckily, Jin-Chul was willing to step up. “I’m surprised that you’re able to speak Korean, and that you’ve retained so much of your mind.”

“I suppose you’re used to the more demonic Denizens of Chaos, and they tend to disregard human languages. I was born a human nearly a thousand years ago. I was an above average necromancer under the Iron Body Monarch. She took in any undead humans as they weren’t considered separate from any other altered humans at that time. We all considered ourselves human, and had many centuries to learn most human languages.

“For maintaining my sanity, that can be attributed to strength of both mana and mind. Your fight through this tower has had you face those barely a hundred years old, maybe not even soldiers. They do not have the fortitude to stand against decades of subliminal messages and brainwashing. I cannot pretend to remain unaffected, I doubt I could overcome the essence stone enough to walk away from this place I am forced to defend from invaders.

Metus stood tall, it was hard to read her, but he’d call her ‘expressions’, defiant if nothing else.

“But I have remained myself. Even the stone embedded in my spine cannot make me see the reincarnation of my beloved Monarch as an invader to be defended against. How could the Ashborn invade what is rightfully his? Why shouldn’t the grandest Monarch lay claim to a city to a city he once fought for and defended from an army of Rulers?”

The Lich Queen paused for a moment. “Ah, I let myself get carried away. It’s been too long since I’ve had someone to speak with.”

Jin-Woo just nodded, his voice coming out very scratchy as he responded. “That’s fine. Do you know where we would be able to find food or water?”

She thought it over for a moment. “Hm, I do, but I fear it won’t be immediately useful. There is a lake and farmland on the ninetieth floor, but that is quite a far journey.” 

Far journey was an understatement. That was 15 floors away and each was worse than the last, it would likely take a month at their absolute fastest with how they currently were. Even if they focused on sneaking rather than fighting, their pace got slower with every day, and he wasn’t sure how much they were willing to take that risk of being surrounded.

They both looked at the other, wondering if they’d be able to survive all the way to floor ninety.

“How many levels are there?” They had been guessing there were 100, but he was hoping she’d say 75.

The skeleton woman nodded. “There are one hundred, and on the top floor is Baran, the Demon King. But he is far from his full strength. He had been in single combat with Ashborn, and that is not something one comes away from unscathed. He’s little more than a puppet made from the comatose body of the monarch, but I wouldn’t recommend underestimating him either. Puppet or not, he was a brute known for his physical strength and mastery of both lightning and flame magics.”

As Jin-Woo nodded along, Jin-Chul cut in.

“How is it that you know so much about what’s going on outside this floor? You said you’re trapped here, but it sounds like you’ve seen every floor and watched our journey.”

She waved her hand dismissively. “Simple divination magic. Specifically a type that my monarch once invented. You seem to only see out of the shadows that hold your summons. This technique allows the caster to see through nearly any shadow with ease.”

“That’s amazing. How long would it take me to learn that?”

Metus laughed. “I should specify that it is simple to use once it has been learned. It took the full Ashborn decades to create the method and decades more to master it. Sadly, you are still but an echo of his majesty. I see nothing that would stop you from focusing on training in this magic for the next fifty years, but it would mean dedicating most your life to it and nothing else since unmodified humans live such short lives. Unless of course you find a way to ascend and regain your immortality.”

His shoulders sagged a little. He had a feeling there were a lot of things he could do that he never imagined possible, but it would probably take so long to learn them that it would be essentially irrelevant.

Jin-chul cut off further discussion of magics Jin-Woo could theoretically learn. “Is there anything that can help us reach there faster? Our main enemy is time.”

She paused as she pondered the question. “Yes, I think I might be able to. But I will want something in return.”

They glanced at each other and nodded, there wasn’t much they wouldn’t do if it meant having a chance to survive.

“While your undead clear the path to your destination, you will remain here. You shall continue your attempts at removing the stones by practicing on the skeletons here. Once you find success I expect to be freed from this prison.”

“I’m fine with that in theory, but my summons are less coordinated when they’re on a separate floor and I’m not strong enough right now for my summons to survive that sort of handicap.”

“Do not worry little Monarch, that is where my side of the bargain comes in. Give me your hand.”

He tentatively reached out towards her, unsure what was about to happen. Both of her long and spindly hands wrapped around his like a cocoon of bone. Nothing happened for a few seconds and he started feeling like he was being pranked when Metus shook her head. “Let go of your doubts, I know you do not remember me, but you must trust me for the spell to work.”

That wasn’t an easy ask, to open your heart to a giant skeleton woman you just met. Whatever he was doing now wasn’t working, so he tried to come at it from a new angle, to see it from her perspective. Don’t see her as a stranger, see her as Metus, an old woman looking for any sign of recognition in a lost friend that had forgotten her. He tried to imagine what it would be like to have someone he cared about disappear for years only to come back with amnesia and a new face.

He could have sworn she smiled when he suddenly felt a rush of power. He gasped loudly, his body reacting like it was injected with adrenaline as his mana pool was rapidly replenished.

“Go and replenish your army. Show your enemies the power of the reborn Monarch of Shadows and King of Undeath.”

Chapter Text

They’d been on floor 75 for a bit and he was pretty sure they were now past day 100. He wasn’t positive though since the watch they’d been using was destroyed. It was more than a bit alarming to think about the fact that barely any time would have passed for their friends and family outside. The season would be the same, no one would be older, no one would look different. For them it would be a week at most, but for the two hunters it had now been nearly a third of a year.

Both of their birthdays had come and gone, though he hadn’t noticed his own until days after it had passed. Jin-Chul found himself having a full beard of rough and coarse hair since grooming wasn’t a real option. Jin-Woo however still had little more than stubble, which seemed more comfortable, even if he liked to tease the younger man about it. They both had short and choppy hair styles at the moment, long hair was inconvenient and dangerous in a fight. Since all they had for hairstyling options were various daggers it looked like their hair was mauled by a feral cat, but it did the job.

That wasn’t even mentioning their health. They hadn’t been on their diet of monster meat for very long, but it wasn’t shocking that surviving off of poison would be harmful. They were probably only still alive because high ranking hunters tended to be resistant to poisons and diseases.

Even with that resistance, Jin-Chul was still seeing that begin to show, and he had a feeling it would only get worse. His mouth kept bleeding and their teeth were in particularly bad shape. He was sure a large portion of that was the lack of oral hygiene, but the diet of demon parts was clearly making it worse and fast. To pull the look together back was speckled with bruises from sleeping on the ground.

Jin-Chul sighed and looked down at the man sleeping in his arms. Well, pretending to sleep in his arms, a common strategy both of them had picked up recently. He had noticed when Jin-Woo had woken up half an hour ago but had pretended not to notice. He could guess that the man wanted physical affection but wanted to avoid admitting that he needed it. He couldn’t pretend he was that different either. They were trapped in a hellscape and both of them clearly needed any comfort they could get their hands on in this fucked up pocket dimension.

He thought things over for a few more minutes before biting the bullet. “I know you’re up, and we really do need to talk about our… situation.”

Jin-Woo looked up and gradually turned so it was easier to see each other. “What situation?”

Jin-Chul just gave him a blank stare. “Don’t play dumb, you know exactly what I mean. You never declined my feelings, but you’ve never actually confirmed anything either. I suppose what I’ve been trying to figure out is if you feel the same or if the constant near death experiences have you searching for comfort regardless of how you feel.”

Jin-Woo nodded slowly, clearly not ready for the sudden discussion. He supposed he could have been more subtle and delicate about it, but he was growing increasingly frightened that he’d die before getting a true response to his unplanned confession. He probably would have kept it to himself if he hadn’t been sure he was going to die, but now that the cat was out of the bag the anticipation of not knowing was killing him. Maybe not as literally or quickly as their new food source or the murderous demons, but he stood by the hyperbole. 

“I-I’m not sure what to say. I get that you want me to be more clear, but I have no idea how I feel about all this.”

He rested his head in his hands for a moment as he thought it over. “I get that this makes sense to you and is something you’ve done before, but this is all very new and weird to me. I’ve been pretty focused on taking care of Jinah since I was barely an adult and never had the time or energy to even consider a relationship. I don’t think I’ve even had something like a crush let alone something more serious.”

Jin-Chul nodded along, he supposed that made sense. He’d always figured that Jin-Woo had very little experience just with the nature of being younger and also his oblivious nature when it came to people flirting, but he hadn’t considered that it was none. No highschool flings or first real heartbreak. He tried to remember what it was like to approach a relationship for the first time.

All of that pushed him further in the direction of thinking this wasn’t romance but latching onto the nearest person in the face of terrifying circumstances. Jin-Woo had never shown any interest in romance of any sort or pursued that sort of relationship his entire life. It was starting to feel like hubris to have ever thought he was the exception to Jin-Woo’s sexuality or lack thereof.

“I don’t want you to feel pressured for anything beyond friendship. I will happily be there as your friend regardless.”

Jin-Woo paused and thought it over some more. “I guess I’m stuck on what would be different from what we’ve been doing already. Like, we basically live together, you help me take care of and raise the girls, we even work together and share lunches most the time. I’m closer with you than I’ve been with anyone else. But I don’t know if ‘really good friend that I want to cuddle and kiss sometimes’ is the same thing as what you’re talking about? Is that being in love?”

Well then. Jin-Chul could definitely live with that.

“I don’t know, but I’m happy with that being the answer for us. I don’t see much reason to worry about labels when there’s no one to tell for now. We can go at whatever pace you want, we won’t do anything you’re not comfortable with.”

“What about your comfort zone? I don’t want to kiss you or something and make you feel bad about it.”

He looked him directly in the eyes with no small amount of intensity, causing the necromancer to blush slightly. “Sung Jin-Woo. Allow me to be incredibly clear. I don’t believe there is a situation where I would be upset by that.”

He wasn’t sure what would happen after that conversation, but the answer turned out to be Jin-Woo sitting silently with him for a bit while they held hands. It wasn’t too long before he went back to attempting to remove the essence stones. Jin-Chul watched him as he walked off, finding that he dreaded their remaining time in the dungeon a little less.

After what seemed like another few days, there was a breakthrough. Jin-Chul was sitting on a piece of rubble and petting Princess when Jin-Woo suddenly took her place in front of him, holding a glowing rock in his hand. That was pretty normal, he’d done that dozens of times, but what was very different was the pause before a huge smile broke out on his face.

“I think it worked!”

He pulled Jin-Chul along as he went over to check on the test subject skeleton, who was sitting upright and seemed perfectly fine. It was like the world was frozen as they both stared at the Denizen who wasn’t collapsing to the ground or showing any other signs of injury. It barely felt real as the success sunk in. Jin-Woo had tried so many times that he had been losing confidence that it was even possible, that he might have been wasting his time searching for an impossible solution.

Sure, one skeleton being freed from continued brainwashing was a miniscule achievement by any measurement. What mattered was the proof that it was possible to save the other Denizens of Chaos. They doubted they’d be able to truly help those that had already lost themselves to madness, but the fact that they could save any of them was such a change from being forced to kill each and every one.

It felt like an exhale after months of holding their breath. It was a chance to turn enemies into allies as they fought for their lives and their home. It was hope for something better.

It was a very welcome surprise when Jin-Woo flew over to him in a high speed hug-tackle that quickly turned into a brief kiss. Jin-Chul’s eyes went wide, the expression reminiscent of a computer rebooting after getting the first kiss with Jin-Woo outside of his near-death confession. It took him a moment to realize that Jin-Woo was talking and that he should probably be listening.

“-but I think we should wait before attempting with Metus until I can get it more consistently. I wouldn’t want to hurt her by rushing it. It’s definitely been a big help to meet a friend of my past-life, if that’s even the right way to describe Ashborn.”

He could agree with that logic, though he could admit he likely would have agreed with just about anything in that moment. Besides, how long would it take now that he’d gotten it once?

It turns out he hadn’t considered just how difficult it would be to go from a singular success to it being a somewhat reliable procedure. Based on Jin-Woo only being able to teleport every 3 hours, it had been about two weeks since they first got to floor 75.

It wouldn’t be long until they had access to floor ninety though, which would change everything. At least he hoped so. Having access to actual food and water would make any sort of success far more feasible. The shadow army was working through floor 88, so it would only be a few more days. But at the same time he was beginning to doubt they would survive that long, and even if they did the lingering effects would likely kill them anyways.

Their health was declining rapidly and there wasn’t much they could do about it. Choosing from death by dehydration or death by continuously drinking poison wasn’t exactly a great set of options. They’d already given up on eating and just accepted that starving until they reached floor ninety was better than their symptoms being worsened by eating demon meat on top of drinking demon blood.

That decision was specifically made once Jin-Woo lost a tooth while trying to chew. They’d both lost a fair amount of teeth already and just about all of the remaining ones were either loose, visibly decayed, or both.

He was laying on his back without much desire to move, any unnecessary expenditure of energy was out of the question. He looked up briefly as Jin-Woo floated back over from talking with Metus, he wasn’t sure about what but he wasn’t too worried about that. She’d taken on a very caring and almost motherly role when it came to Jin-Woo, doing everything she could to keep him healthy and safe. That said, she was getting worn down herself with how often she’d had to supplement the Jin-Woo’s mana with her own, she’d also wrapped him in the strange shadow fabric for some reason.

The man laid back down with a groan, his words coming out raspy and gritty, “I thought moving around was supposed to be good for me, but it just made everything hurt worse. Just me, or do your bones hurt like a bitch too?”

He just grunted in response, not having the energy to actually have a conversation. His bones ached, his back hurt, his gums kept bleeding, his stomach gnawed at itself in hunger, and all he wanted to do was sleep. So he was in no mood to do anything more than lay on the pile of dirt he’d made for a bed, which was slightly better than the rock he’d been sleeping on.

Jin-Woo looked over at his sleeping boyfriend(?) with a slight frown. They would have food and water soon, but it was clear that Jin-Chul was taking their circumstances hard. He’d had a general idea of what was happening and Metus had confirmed his theory.

As a powerful mage his body was far weaker than his mind, which showed in how their new diet was affecting him. His emotions were essentially untouched and his mind was clear, but his body was wracked with constant pain and the scars on his body had begun breaking down and opening into new wounds again. On top of that, any injuries he had were healing at a much slower rate and it took almost nothing for new bruises to form.

When it came to the mental impacts, he felt perfectly fine, maybe a bit grumpy about the constant pain and worried about potential death, but those were manageable. From what Metus told him it was a mix of his mental fortitude and the mana transfers, which apparently temporarily transferred some of the caster’s personality as well. He doubted that was an issue though, he wouldn’t want to risk his mind failing while his body was weakened and Jin-Chul needed extra support.

If it wasn’t for the shadow bandages he likely would have bled out from his leg alone when his stump started to open up and pour out blood. It was definitely the worst of the symptoms he’d had so far, but he still had hope that they’d be able to hold on for a couple more days. That said, he wasn’t sure how confident he’d be if things escalated further.

As if to prove his point, as he was pondering this, he nearly choked on his own blood, causing him to cough harshly until he saw a bloody tooth on the ground. Yeah, he didn’t envy his dentist when he saw her next. He’d probably need dentures when he got out, he’d already lost five and had a feeling that wasn’t going to stop soon.

But that wasn’t where he was going with this train of thought. While his body was falling apart and bleeding from most of it, Jin-Chul was a physically tough melee fighter who was far more resistant to bodily damage. Which meant that his mind was taking the toll instead.

Within a few days he had gone from weary about the dungeon but bordering on giddy when it came to their new relationship, to weary about everything and barely having the energy to stand up. It had only gotten worse from there, Jin-Chul now barely getting off of his patch of dirt. He just hoped that his body and Jin-Woo’s mind would be able to heal after this. He was a bit worried how much he was banking his hopes on floor ninety being what Metus claimed, but he had nothing else to hold onto. Either it would have what they desperately needed or they would simply die.

Chapter Text

Jin-Woo held his partner close as they rode on the back of a large lizard-like demon, it was sort of like a crocodile and worked well enough as their transportation. They’d finally reached floor ninety after who knows how long and they were in poor shape even though reaching their destination raised his spirits a bit. Sadly, Jin-Chul wasn’t too impacted by this development since he was barely conscious at this point, a fact he did his best not to think about.

His summons wiped out the mindless demons on the floor and started approaching the castle in the distance when his front line fighters started taking damage rapidly. In order to preserve mana he had them pull back and keep some distance until they arrived. Plus, he’d rather be allies and solve this with diplomacy if at all possible. It didn’t take long for them to arrive to the sight of five mounted knights. The possibility of there being food and water went from being a hope to a certainty as he stared at the horses.

Four of the five knights wore black and silver plate mail and wielded lances, with swords on their side as well. Their presumed leader had a glaive and golden plate mail that were both clearly enchanted in some way. Plus, the golden helmet had curving horns on it like a crown, so it wasn’t too hard to guess that this was probably who they needed to talk to.

As soon as the demons spotted him their weapons were raised and ready to begin their attack. Jin-Woo raised his hands placatingly and tried to talk them down, speaking to them in their own language that he’d learned by resurrecting demons.

“We’re not here to fight. We need food and water, and we’re hoping we can come to a peaceful agreement. Look, you seem to have kept your sanity and can act reasonably, but if you stand in the way of us getting what we need-”

Before he could finish his request/demand/threat, the leader of their group jabbed forward with her spear. He narrowly dodged the resulting blast of force that tore through two buildings and left them as little more than rubble.

He responded by having the undead he couldn’t store in his shadow move in and encircle them. About 75 undead stood at the ready, with another 150 hiding in his shadow. Luckily, the display of force was enough to make her pause before unleashing another attack.

She did not lower her glaive completely, but her posture was slightly less aggressive. “Who are you and how did you get here? There should have been armies of the mindless between us and any portals forming.”

Jin-Woo stared her down. “Like I said, I’d prefer words, but I have no issue cutting you down if you're in my way.” Jin-Chul wouldn’t make it much longer without real food, and he highly doubted there was a single being in this pocket dimension that he would ever value more than the man in his arms.

She nodded and began to turn her steed around. “Come with me. We’ll discuss this further with my father, King Radiru.”

He sighed in relief and followed behind her. He was a bit nervous about the guards surrounding them as they traveled, one on their left and right and two behind them. He had some reasonable concerns that they would attack, so he began filling all their shadows with his undead whenever he could. He was lucky that most of the lighting was from various things being on fire, since that meant their shadows crossed fairly often, giving him the perfect opportunities to casually shift his army from his shadow to theirs.

He wished he could say he was shocked when she came to a sudden stop and spun her horse around with her weapon raised. The knights around them followed her lead and began closing in, clearly aiming to skewer them from all angles. The moment before they managed to strike, over a hundred undead shadow demons rose from the ground and attacked the ambushers from behind and below.

The guards were forced to divert their attention to the undead rising up from below their feet. One attempted to charge through and strike Jin-Woo himself but was held back by Kargalgan’s gravity magic, another was torn apart by Spot’s massive jaws. As that battle raged their leader tore through the shadows that attempted to strike her down. Her glaive slashed through them, one after another, but she was unable to make real progress as they kept healing no matter what she did.

It was a stalemate that she didn’t realize she was winning, he estimated that he could go another ten or twenty minutes before he entered a dangerous level of mana. However, once her guards fell the tables turned rapidly. With all their focus on her, she was overwhelmed by an onslaught of summons.

Eventually she lay disarmed, beaten, and bruised on the ground with Hwang holding her in a headlock and nearly a half dozen of his undead piled on her back so she couldn’t get back up. Once the fighting had stopped his attention was quickly pulled elsewhere.

He stared at the frightened horses with hunger. His stomach ached for sustenance so badly, but he also wanted to reach the castle as quickly as possible. At the same time though… If the demons at the castle were just as hostile, it would be even longer without food, so he shouldn’t give up this chance.

One had been badly injured in the fight and likely wouldn’t survive, and so it was the one to be sacrificed to satiate the starving hunters.

He had one of his demon mages create a small fire and used a damaged breastplate as a makeshift skillet. The demon princess was ignored as he cooked the meat just enough to be edible food. Eating unseasoned horse meat was by no means his preference, but after eating demon flesh for over a month it was a godsend. Logically he knew it was tough and bland, but it felt like the most delicious thing he’d ever consumed.

He spent the next hour or so cooking, eating, and feeding small pieces to the barely conscious Jin-Chul. It was difficult to keep from stuffing himself, but he knew after so long of starving he’d just vomit it all up if he did that.

After eating his fill, Jin-Chul had gone from being half awake but too lethargic to move, to fully asleep. He could only hope that his partner would recover soon once they got a chance to rest. He’d been forced to almost exclusively use telekinesis for preparing and cooking since any movement would aggravate his countless wounds that refused to heal.

He had their mount walk over to the captured demon and used his magic to pull off her helmet and hovered a knife above her throat. He stared down at the teenage girl, at least that was what she looked like, he had no idea how fast or slow demons aged.

“This is your last chance to decide if we’re guests being led in by our host, or if we’re invaders bringing a hostage. Because I’m willing to do either.”

She looked up at him with wide eyes that had started pouring tears, though he wasn’t sure how real they were.

“I’m so sorry! I’ll never betray you again. I’ll bring you right to the castle and help you with whatever you’re doing there. If you’re trying to take over I can show you the secret entrances and where defenses are weakest.”

Her loyalty was clearly something that could change on a dime depending on whichever seemed most beneficial at that given moment. Right now that change in loyalty was very useful, but if she ever had a reason to join someone else he had no doubt that she’d jump ship. He wondered if that was a demonic trait or if her lack of honesty and loyalty was a personal failing.

He retracted his knife and the shadows pinning her down. “Alright, lead the way then.” He paused for a moment after realizing something. “Oh, and what’s your name? I forgot to ask.”

After standing up she bowed to him. “I’m princess Esil Radiru, at your service.”

It took a few hours, but they reached the front gates of the castle soon enough. It was a gorgeous piece of architecture, one of the few that seemed to be fully intact and receiving upkeep rather than being left in ruins like everything else.

Regardless of her offers to show them the best locations to raid the castle, they went up to the front. He really did hope they could do this peacefully. The demons around here were much more mentally sound than just about any of the ones they’d seen earlier, and he strongly hoped they could be saved. Beyond that, they seemed quite a bit stronger than what they’d faced previously and he didn’t want to burn through all his remaining strength fighting battles he could have avoided.

As they grew closer he could make out guards standing at the ready all along the ramparts with various weapons and magics prepared to be unleashed upon them. Esil put a stop to their imminent attack by waving her arms in the air and pulling their attention to herself, rather than the large undead shadow demon they were riding.

“Don’t shoot! These are friends!”

Thankfully that was enough to give them pause and pull back before attacking. Not soon after, the drawbridge was lowered and they were let through. They walked over the drawbridge and he now saw that the moat was actually a giant pit of fire, which really wasn’t too surprising at this point.

The many guards inside looked more than a bit wary but didn’t take any action against anyone the princess had called a ‘friend’. Granted, he couldn’t blame them for being on edge, her personal guards weren’t with her and she’d returned injured and flanked by strangers.

He’d decided to keep all his undead, other than his mount, either in his shadow or further away, focusing on clearing out the rest of the surrounding area in case a retreat was needed. A guide of some sort in a long flowing robe led them inside and through the winding hallways of the castle. He was interested by the fact that it didn’t actually look particularly old. Parts were more worn than others, so his guess was it was damaged but not destroyed when the Rulers took the city but they had managed to rebuild it.

It didn’t take much longer for them to reach massive stone doors, detailed with intricate carvings that seemed like they might be magical runes. He was lucky that the halls and doorways had been large enough for him to get through on the lizard demon they rode in. Jin-Chul stirred a few times but mostly was just sleeping off the meal from earlier.

The bald elf-like demon looked up at him for a moment, speaking somewhat quietly. “Do you have a name and title I should announce you with?”

He nodded and answered, deciding that he should go with the most intimidating and attention grabbing option.

The man looked more than a bit shaken but quickly composed himself and led them in. With a wooden throne and a golden crown, the gray skinned and pointy eared demon king stared down at them. There were at least ten knights up against the walls, standing at attention and ready to step in if he threatened the king in some way. Behind the king stood several advisors, or something similar to that he assumed. Interestingly enough, everyone seemed to be of the same species of demon, whereas the mindless ones had been a wide variety.

“Now presenting, Princess Esil Radiru, and Sung Jin-Woo, bearer of Ashborn’s soul.”

That had silenced the entire room immediately other than various gasps of shock and disbelief. Esil also took this moment of shock as a good chance to move over to her father, who looked more than a bit worried about her. After a moment one noble cried out. “Preposterous! You want me to believe this starving mortal is actually the Ashborn?! How dare you insult-”

Before he could continue the king turned and slapped the man hard enough that he went flying into a wall. He spoke in a near panicked whisper, “Are you a fool? Can you not see the army lying in wait in his shadow?! We are outnumbered ten to one and you would mock him?!”

Turning back to Jin-Woo, the king seemed more than a bit nervous. “My apologies Sung Jin-Woo. What brings you to our castle?”

He could have been honest, but Metus had made it clear that if he worded things as him being an outsider taking over then their essence stones would force them to attack. So it would be best to lean further into his character of someone being exclusively led by the dead monarch’s wishes.

“I am on my way to Baran. I may only carry a fragment of the Ashborn’s soul, but he will pay for ending my previous life. I have no problem with you or your allies, once I have dealt with him I will be on my way.”

The man nodded rapidly. “Of course. I imagine most would want to avenge their own deaths, but don’t get the chance to. Is there anything we can do to help you on your journey?”

One of those behind him, who looked a bit like the leader of the guards, leaned over a bit. “Sir, you need not be so concerned. We may be outnumbered, but we far exceed the strength of his undead.”

“You are all far too young and do not recall the Ashborn as more than someone in stories and histories. When the Rulers betrayed and killed him he rose from the dead and slaughtered scores of them in response. Baran betrayed and killed him and now he’s back again to slaughter once again. Am I surrounded by idiots that believe killing the Ashborn, assuming you can win the fight, will defeat him?”

He turned back to Jin-Woo once again. “My apologies for the many interruptions. What can we assist with?”

“I might have Ashborn’s soul, but I still have a human body. Food, water, and a bed to sleep on would be greatly appreciated for myself and my companion.”

“Of course! That is easy enough, perhaps we shall even have a feast. I am impressed you have made it this far, there are not many places with water in the Grand Tower.”

Jin-Woo looked him directly in the eyes. “We survived off of the blood and flesh of demons.”

At the very least, the rest of the advisors seemed to finally share the king’s healthy dose of fear for this new Ashborn and had no further issue with supplying whatever resources they might need.

Chapter Text

Jin-Chul felt like he’d been stuck in a haze for weeks, barely interacting with the world around him. All he ever felt was exhaustion and the crushing realization that they were going to die here. He’d been so hungry and so thirsty that being awake just meant more pain and more exhaustion, so he found himself sleeping away as much of the day as possible.

However, this time that he woke up everything felt oddly soft, like he was sleeping on a cloud. His mind was groggy and it took him a moment to realize he was on a bed, which made him sit up in shock. How did he end up somewhere other than the hard ground or a thin sleeping bag?

He vaguely remembered them arriving at their destination and being given food and water before falling asleep again. Were they finally safe?

“You alright?”

He looked to his left and saw Jin-Woo standing by the window, a slightly worried frown on his face. All he wore was underwear and the bandages that covered all of his various wounds. The lack of food had left his body emaciated and weak, but Jin-Chul was not ashamed to admit the man still had a lean and muscular body worth ogling. It certainly didn’t hurt that Jin-Woo had gotten cleaned up and had his hair trimmed to look much healthier.

On the topic of his gorgeous hair. It had gotten just long enough that it could be tied back and made (in his opinion) a very attractive ponytail. He would always respect Jin-Woo’s boundaries, but that didn’t mean he hadn’t wanted to take a bite out of those sculpted abs ever since they’d run out of shirts.

Jin-Woo looked at him with a slightly cocked head. “Everything good? You kinda stared into the distance for a bit.”

“Huh? Yeah, things are fine. I take it you got everything set up with the lord here?”

He nodded back. “We’ll have time to recover and rebuild our strength, in turn I try to remove the essence stones and I’ve agreed to use diplomacy whenever possible in the remaining floors. They’re okay with us taking out the mindless and Baran, since they are too far gone to be saved, but anyone still mentally sound they would obviously prefer we rescue them if at all possible.”

“That sounds like a good deal to me. I’ll get cleaned up later, I’d rather not look this dirty in front of a king again.” He really wanted to just stay in bed and eat food, but he couldn’t leave everything up to Jin-Woo.

“Oh, before you do that, I have something you’ll probably appreciate. Since food here is more of a luxury than a need, the options and amounts were pretty limited. Luckily, they’re big fans of alcohol, so they have a shit ton of grapes, wheat, barley, potatoes, that sort of thing.”

He was a bit doubtful that wine grapes would be particularly tasty, but he certainly had no complaints about getting fresh fruit. Jin-Woo gave him a smile and pulled a large bowl of grapes out of a shadow and handed it over.

They were smaller than regular grapes, thick skinned, filled with seeds, and quite possibly the most delicious thing he’d ever eaten. He engorged himself on the grapes, basking in the flavor while trying to fill the emptiness that weeks of starvation had left him with.

He paused for a moment once he couldn’t eat any more. “Did you sleep at all while I was out? It sounds like you did a lot since I was last up, finding food, making truces, getting a haircut, and I doubt getting your wounds treated was quick.”

Jin-Woo faltered slightly and his smile became a bit more forced. “Ah, well, I slept for about an hour, but the pain woke me up again. It sounds like they have pain medicine here, so once I finish up a few more things I’ll probably do that and sleep for as long as possible.”

He nodded slowly, he didn’t like it, but he highly doubted he could convince him to sleep first and accomplish his goals later, but he'd be damned if he let his self sacrificing boyfriend do everything on his own. “Ok. What do you need to get done and what do you need me to do?”

“Once you get cleaned up the healer should come around. After that it would be great if you could get supplies in order. They’re already making sure we’ll have food and water, but we need weapons, armor, clothes, and any other basic equipment. While you do that I’m going to try and save Metus.”

He supposed that made sense, but it was still shocking to think about. Were they finally ready to start saving the Denizens of Chaos? If this was a success it would be a huge milestone, but if it failed it would be a huge emotional blow to Jin-Woo as well as put their truce in danger since it was a major part of the agreement. Instead of saying any of that, since he was sure he already knew, he simply walked over and gave a gentle kiss on his forehead.

“You can do this.”

Jin-Woo relaxed and his expression became far less forced, a small and pained smile of someone struggling through but still trying his hardest.

It wasn’t much later when they went their separate ways. While he still felt physically and emotionally exhausted, having food and water made enough of a difference that he could actually function. He moved to the nearby bathroom and looked for a bathtub or shower. He was in luck to find an ancient stone bath with a ‘faucet’, specifically a rune covered stone that created hot water when you channeled mana into it.

He filled up the tub and started to step in before yanking back as he realized that the default temperature was at about boiling. He supposed it made sense since the castle was built for demonic rather than human preferences, and of course there was only one temperature option. The smart decision would have been to wait patiently for it to cool, but he hadn’t been clean for months and he was desperate for a bath, no matter how hot it was.

If he weren’t an A rank hunter it probably would have badly injured him or just outright cooked him alive, but the relief of washing away all the dirt and dried blood far outweighed the discomfort. It didn’t take long for the water to turn a rusted brown color, prompting him to start the process all over again. He’d done his best not to complain since there were much bigger issues going on, but he was a person that had strong feelings on being clean and presentable, and being trapped in what was essentially hell had made that very difficult.

His various wounds, including the large gash across his chest from over a month ago, were less than pleased to be scrubbed down. That said, it was even more worth the discomfort since just about all his wounds were at varying amounts of disgusting since they hadn’t had access to clean bandages or any other medical equipment.

Eventually he stepped out of the bathroom looking like a cooked lobster with his bright red skin. But he didn’t care, he was clean . It didn’t take long for the royal healer to come find him, an old woman with white hair and wrinkled purplish grey skin. She grabbed his arm and started moving through the castle, just sort of dragging him along at an impressive speed for an elderly woman who walked with a cane.

She didn’t say anything to him or ask any questions, not that it would have helped to ask, he didn’t speak their language in the slightest. Something he was realizing was a major oversight when Jin-Woo left him alone in a demon castle. It wasn’t quite as laughter-like as the snow elves’ language, but between their wispy sounding words and pointed ears he figured they were somewhat related to the elven Denizens in some way or another. Maybe they would be considered fire-elves instead of just falling under the umbrella of ‘demon’.

Eventually they got to a place that looked like some sort of infirmary. He laid on a cot where he was stripped, he’d tried to resist at first, not sure what was going on, but the old woman wasn’t having it. He was ready for her to lay glowing hands on him, or some other form of spell, but instead she pulled out a needle, thread, and a handful of unlabeled potions. She poured some of the liquids over his wounds and had him drink others before she stitched his aggravated wounds shut, once again an unpleasant but very necessary process.

It wasn’t long until he was sent on his way. He knew he needed to get the supplies together, but he was already exhausted. He lied to himself that he was going to get stuff done once he rested for a moment. He just needed to rest his eyes for a second, then he’d have the energy and motivation to do his part. As he laid down he felt something move around on the bed but didn’t think much of it as he let himself fall asleep.

Jin-Woo quietly entered the room, smiling down at the sleeping form of his lover who was unconsciously snuggled up with Princess, the canine making full use of this chance to get cuddles. Princess looked up at him and just stared until he caved and got into bed on her other side, making a shadow wolf sandwich.

His summons were currently clearing the mindless demons from floor 91 and then would make a sweep to make sure that there was nothing left behind on the lower floors. He wasn’t sure what day it was anymore, but they both knew the deadline was coming up and didn’t want to risk any demons rushing the exit while they continued the fight on the upper levels.

His army would also be collecting resources while he rested. It wouldn’t matter much now, but having the resources needed to make more weapons and armor was vital to all the hunters fighting. He just had to keep using the word ‘resources’. Even after all this time, it was easiest to just not think about the fact that just about all gear was made from the flesh and bone of the Denizens of Chaos.

He was pulled from the train of thought when a shadowy tongue ran up his face as Princess licked him, preventing any worried thought. He chuckled a little and rubbed her head. He couldn’t deny that he was physically and emotionally exhausted. He’d finally freed Metus from that damn stone. It was such a relief to get past that point where he’d been so terrified of accidentally killing their best ally.

She would need time to recover but it was a massive step in the right direction. He supposed the logical step would be to capitalize on that and start making moves to get through the next floors, but he just didn’t have the energy for that. Everything had been dragging on for so long that it was weird to think about them being near the end of it all.

The potion he’d been told to drink by the nice old lady had started to kick in and he was more than willing to be very asleep for as long as possible. He hoped that things would keep going as they were, but he had low expectations. At least for now they had a place to rest and recover until the next inevitable battle.

Chapter Text

Jin-Woo sat in the throne of the 99th floor’s king with Jin-Chul standing at his side and dozens of demonic nobility kneeling before them. Over the past two or three weeks, all but two of the floors submitted without a fight. The 99th floor was made up of Baran’s royal guard and staunchest supporters. As you could expect, they refused to turn on their king, which was the direct cause of those people now being dead.

The 93rd floor had suffered a similar fate when they refused to let him pass, even the ones that didn’t like him tended to want him gone as soon as possible, so it had been a problematic change in attitude. At the same time, their extermination had been a good example that had prevented it from being an issue again until the semi-final floor.

The two hunters had been recovering and made incredible strides compared to where they had been, but still had a long way to go. They hadn’t been a part of any fights personally in nearly two months, but that didn’t mean they hadn’t been busy. Jin-Chul had continued practicing how long he could keep Stealth active and keep his emotions calm enough to not let anyone perceive him. It wasn’t perfect by any means, but he could keep it up for hours at a time. This led to him turning into an undetectable guard that was by Jin-Woo’s side at most times.

For Jin-Woo’s part, he was building an army, or more accurately, he was expanding his shadow army to include other forces. It had taken a bit for Metus to break the hold it had on her, but she began tentatively leaving the floor her essence stone had bound her to. As one that was now unbounded though, her summons would be free of those restrictions as well. Over the past few weeks she had created hundreds if not thousands of powerful skeleton warriors that stood at the ready near the glowing pillar that led to the final floor.

On the demonic front, Jin-Woo could make about six or seven attempts each day to remove essence stones, with an average of four being successful. It meant that about a third of everyone he tried to save had died, but even so, he’d freed eighty two demons that had previously been enslaved. He wished he could do so much more, but he was severely limited by the cooldown on his teleportation skill. Since success was more likely the stronger they were, he had focused on the strongest of the demonic forces. This meant all eighty two of them were probably somewhere between S rank and nation ranked hunters in terms of power and skill.

The only real reference he had was that Jin-Chul was at the very edge of A rank before S rank began, and he could tell most of them were between three and four times as powerful as his lover. Some excelled beyond that, such as the kings and queens of each floor that tended to be closer to ten Jin-Chul’s combined. However, a few of the leaders, including Esil’s father, were willing to have their essence stones removed. It was a great risk where the main benefit was being able to leave the tower, and they refused to leave their people behind unless all could be freed with them.

On the other hand, Esil jumped at the chance to join them. She longed for adventure and to travel outside the wall of their city. The general feeling was that the denizens of chaos wanted to restore their home and people to its former glory, but above all, they wanted freedom. Currently, she was by her father’s side, both of them kneeling along with a few of their most important nobles.

Representatives from each of the eight floors offered fealty to him and offered tribute as their way to solidify their place under a new Monarch. It had taken him a bit to understand, but eventually Esil explained it in a way he got. The people in the tower were very vulnerable, they may be powerful, but there are lots of things out there that are even stronger. Specifically, they were concerned about being killed by another Monarch that saw them as a loose end or a threat because of the essence stones.

So, Jin-Woo coming around was a great opportunity for them to ally themselves with someone that would be able to protect them. Sure, he wasn’t strong enough at the moment, but they were placing their bets on the assumption that he would grow far stronger. While there were a fair number of doubters, many had come to believe he would eventually match the original Ashborn since death had made the being even stronger the first time.

He would be happy just declaring that he would protect them whenever possible, but for them that was very risky, because they hadn’t actually given him a reason to do so. It was like a government promising to pave the roads without asking for taxes. Essentially, the contract had to go in both directions in order for them to trust that it would be kept.

All of this was what led to him sitting in said throne as demons made tribute to him as their next Monarch.

The first to approach was a massive woman with a spider for the bottom half, the term that came to mind for him was drider but he had no idea what they called themselves. She was the queen of the 95th floor, holding in front of her a simple and rugged wooden staff that was a bit on the small side with the Orb of Avarice embedded into the top of it.

“Sung Jin-Woo, Monarch of death and rebirth, King of Earth (this wasn’t true but he’d given up trying to explain that probably being the strongest didn’t make him the political leader), I offer you Sliver, the Realm Weaver. We are honored that you allowed us to incorporate your spell focus into the item, giving it your own personal touch. This staff is made from a piece of the World Tree that binds together all realms. How its power manifests depends on the wielder and what the tree decides for them, as even the smallest fragment will be eternally tied to Yggdrasill and its will.”

It certainly sounded impressive, but didn’t look like much. Now that he thought about it, it looked like an oversized splinter with the orb on top a drop of blood, like it had just pricked someone’s thumb. However, the moment it was in his hands he could feel the depths of the power it was tied to. It was like holding a tiny piece of a god, no, not a god, it was not quite as sentient as that. It was more like holding a part of a concept, a law of nature made manifest.

It was an ocean of untapped power, but it was just that, untapped, directionless. It hadn’t adjusted to Jin-Woo or his magic. The only thing that gave it the slightest direction was the orb at its top, which was siphoning a small portion of its power and more than doubled in power.

“Thank you, this is an incredible gift.” He paused for a moment, remembering that he had a specific line he was supposed to say for the tribute ceremony. “Your tribute has been accepted, your people are under my protection and guidance.”

The whole thing was very feudal and almost like a mafia protection racket. At the same time he could understand that it would be hard to move past a government based on powerful people offering protection when some beings were magnitudes stronger than everything else.

As she went back to join the rest, he noticed the other nobles looked frustrated and or nervous at having to follow that up.

The king of floor 94 stepped forward next, he had seven arms, each with three large claws, and skin that looked somewhat like the night sky. His mother, their queen, had been the queen but sadly had not survived the attempt at removing her essence stone. Unsurprisingly, what determined which child was in line for the throne was physical and magical strength. It seemed like titles were hereditary, with children inheriting their parent’s throne, but anyone had the right to usurp that title if they were strong enough to take it. It was a chaotic system where even the most important and influential figures could be ousted at a moment’s notice if someone more talented showed up. But he supposed there was a reason they were called Denizens of Chaos rather than ‘Denizens of Calm and Peaceful Discussion’ .

In the new king’s hands was a silver set of plate armor that was comparatively tiny in his massive hands. It was enchanted to provide as much protection as possible without doing much of anything else.

“For your husband. It would not do for our Monarch’s lover/mistress/concubine to be harmed.”

Jin-Woo had to pause and figure out what exactly was said. That word didn’t translate well in the slightest, and he was more than a bit confused. The closest thing his brain could translate it as was love-spouse, which still left him confused. He had grown used to Jin-Chul being referred to as his husband, even if it was very much not where their relationship was at this point. He’d learned that demons mated for life, but typically weren’t limited to a single partner, meaning they had no word for a relationship that was anything between ‘friend’ and ‘I will be with you until death and nothing can separate us’.

After he accepted the armor he asked the man to clarify. “Before you go, what was that word you used? I’m still learning some of the language, but it sounded similar to your word for husband, but also not quite?”

“Hm? Do humans not have that? It must be a sad world if you can’t marry for love. There are two kinds of marriage, one is a bond of love that does not create children, and one is with someone who compliments your strength to create powerful offspring. For someone with such a mastery over undeath, you would typically partner with someone like Metus to make powerful necromancer children.”

He was suddenly jealous of Jin-Chul’s lack of fluency in the language, because that was a mental image that would be hard to get rid of. He had so many questions about how that sort of system would shape society and family structures, but at the same time he wasn’t sure if he wanted the answer, not to mention that they were already in the middle of an important ceremony. At least Metus seemed deeply uncomfortable at the suggestion as well, so he wouldn’t have to worry about that side of things in the future.

With that behind them the demon nobles continued the tribute ceremony. Apparently, there was typically a greater variety of tribute, but gold or other extravagant showings of wealth wouldn’t help him survive the coming battle, but weapons certainly would.

Jin-Chul received an amulet that had two intertwined crystals, one helped him regenerate mana faster and the other made his feet levitate about a millimeter off the ground. This combo meant he could keep up stealth near indefinitely and his footsteps no longer disturbed the terrain. He hadn’t been an assassin initially, but he was rapidly becoming one of the most dangerous ones in the world.

Along with the staff, Jin-Woo received robes, a helmet, a set of knives, an amulet, and finally, a ring, each an artifact of immense power and value on their own. The robe billowed in the non-existent wind, it was made of vine-like black cords braided together into a thick fabric that hung loosely from his body. What made it so special was that it could be fed your mana, and the more you fed it the stronger and tougher it became. The large purple amulet he received was similar because you fed it your mana, but instead of consuming it, the gem would store it for another day, allowing the user to cast massive spells using weeks worth of  magic power at once.

The helmet was the most eye-catching piece so far. It was a flaming horse skull, which gave him some well earned hesitation before putting it on. After he placed it on his head, the flames flickered and went out for a moment.  It felt like something was poking around his mind before it burst into a mass of black fire that engulfed his body before settling into a smaller and more stable flame rising from the skull.

“The Grand Nightmare has accepted our new Monarch!” The horse-like demon that had handed it to him turned to the other demons who cheered with them. They then turned back to Jin-Woo, “The Grand Nightmare was the first of our kind and a being of legendary strength, she has accepted you as our leader and shall grant you her wisdom and power for as long as you remain a just ruler.”

So that was pretty unexpected. Unlike the other items, it was a lot more vague in regard to what exactly it would do, and when he asked it was said that it depended on what the Grand Nightmare bestowed upon him, which wasn’t helpful at all.

The simplest of the items were a set of eight obsidian knives that were clearly meant for his fighting style of using telekinesis through them since they had no handles. They were razor sharp and surprisingly durable for glass, he could already imagine the damage they would unleash if he got all of them spinning and flying through the air.

The ring was another simplistic but very useful item. It was a band of pure darkness that seemed to drip shadows onto the ground. It functioned as a much stronger version of Jin-Woo’s mana regeneration amulet, nearly doubling his recovery rate. This item in particular had been presented by Esil and her Father.

“After the catastrophic battle between Baran and the original Ashborn, this was the only item of yours that we were able fully recover from the site, as most had been destroyed or were made of immaterial shadows.”

It was still odd to think about the fact that there was a part of his soul that used to be part of some other person. He supposed that made the ring his, but it didn’t feel like it was his own even if the others were acting like they were giving something Jin-Woo would have missed and wanted back.

With all of that handled he assumed the ceremony was over, but one more figure approached. Metus knelt before him with what he thought was a smile. “You will be the third Monarch I pledge my allegiance to, I wish you a long life that is beyond your predecessor. I see great potential in you, potential to become something that no one could anticipate, perhaps even something beyond the Monarchs I’ve served in the past.”

She then handed him something he certainly was not anticipating. A leg. A skeletal leg to be specific. A magical skeleton leg that kept moving around on its own to be even more specific.

“As a mindless undead you will be able to control it with a simple thought, even subconscious commands are enough once you grow familiar with it. I also made it tough enough to keep up with you and won’t break anytime soon.”

It took a few tries and was certainly a bit wobbly at first, but he got the undead creature attached to his stump and rose to his feet. He would definitely need time to grow used to the new leg, but it was the closest thing to a permanent fix that he’d had so far.

After a few moments of getting his bearing he stood proudly and stared out at his new subjects. It felt like the moment to make a speech or something, but he didn’t have anything planned so he just had to wing it he supposed.

“Yesterday you were separate, fighting amongst yourselves for whatever was left in the ruins of your cities. Today, you stand together as one people once again. You have shown me great kindness, and I plan to return that kindness, I will free your people. Not just those I already saved, but all of you. And that starts tomorrow, by removing Baran and leading you to a new world where you can build the lives that this war has taken from so many of our people!”

When the cheers died down and the ceremony ended, the troops began to mobilize. It would be a long time until he realized this was the first time he’d referred to himself as being one of them, as ‘our people’, rather than ‘your people’.

Chapter Text

Floor 100 was a bloodbath. The fight had barely lasted a few hours, but by the end he stood atop a mountain of bodies that were creating a river of blood in what was likely once a street.

As soon as they entered the final floor it was clear that this battle would be on an entirely different scale than any they’d faced before. There was a massive fortress that took up a large portion of the level, with observation towers dotting the expansive walls. The towers in particular caught his attention as the first enemies took to the field.

There were at least a dozen towers within view, and each out had a cloud of imps fly out. It was similar to watching a bird migration, but much more alarming as the small shapes came together to block out the sky. Of course, that was only the beginning. A massive iron drawbridge dropped open with demons of every type came charging out of the fortress in a stampede of unholy creatures.

As backwards as it seems, this stampede was just about the best case scenario. If they were mentally sound enough to strategize and raise their defenses then it would become a siege that they would likely lose. They simply didn’t have the weapons or resources needed for a long and drawn out battle like that. The downside though was that retreat would be near impossible without the stampede running them down.

In the end, none of that mattered. The time for strategizing and planning was over. They’d made their choice for this to be the final battle and they would fight until they were either victorious or dead. It was do or die, and he had no intention of dying here.

“Archers! Mages! Focus on thinning the imps! They’re not strong, but they’ll block our view of the real enemies and chip away at our defenses, so don’t give them the chance!” He waited a few seconds longer as the clouds of the small demons grew closer. But they couldn’t fire too soon or risk wasting resources that would certainly be needed later.

“Prepare to shoot! Aim for the center of the swarm, wait for it, and fire!”

The arrows of eight hundred skeleton archers, ten shadows, and eight demons went flying through the air alongside a barrage of fireballs, lightning bolts, and blasts of wind that tore them to pieces. As they grew closer, a gravity spell from Kargalgan smashed a huge ball of them into the ground followed by Esil obliterating large groups at a time with the thrusts from her javelin that punched holes in their formation.

That was about when the rain began. Blood, guts, and corpses began to fall onto them and the field ahead. At first it was just a couple, but it rapidly turned into a downpour as imps were shredded by the thousands, if not tens of thousands. After a few minutes stronger demons would attack from within the swarm, forcing the archers to focus on them.

Every once in a while an imp or some other quick flier would get close to Jin-Woo and be cut in half or electrocuted by some invisible force. Jin-Woo smiled, knowing that it meant Jin-Chul was watching out for him. They would protect each other and finally go home. He let thoughts of home push him forward as he directed the slaughter around him.

He saw the land going demons get closer and gave orders accordingly. “Front line defenses, brace for impact! Focus on holding the line, mid-range and arches, switch to hitting ground troops. Area casters, keep those imps back!”

Jin-Chul watched in wonder as Jin-Woo fell into the rhythm of battle, showing no hesitation as he commanded the troops. Even with everyone treating his boyfriend as their absolute ruler, it had been hard to see him as anything other than just Jin-Woo. In that moment though, as he stood unflinchingly in the blood rain as he ordered their troops to cut down the enemy, he was starting to understand what the others saw. A Monarch that would protect their people and strike down everything else.

“Olran, slow them down, give our arches time to thin them out!”

A small and deceptively powerful demon nodded. They were a two foot tall slime with kaleidoscopic coloring that was hard to look at for too long. Physically, Olran was probably the weakest member of his army, but they were simultaneously one of the strongest and most devastating magic casters. At his order, Olran elongated into something snakelike and slithered to the front before becoming something more humanoid, raising their hands.

“Wave of confusion.” “Illusory threats.” “Wave of madness.”

At those softly spoken words, the incoming rush of demons turned on itself. Any sense of direction was stripped from the attackers, causing many to trample each other in their mad charge. Which was quickly followed by the attackers seeing their enemies already in their midst, having somehow infiltrated their ranks, and finally a feeling of aggression and rage that superseded any logical thought that those ‘enemies’ might be allies.

Olran returned moments later and nodded again. “That was nearly all of my mana, I won’t be able to do much more.”

Jin-Woo watched in horror as the incoming army tore itself to pieces. He’d known Olran was powerful, but he’d underestimated just how destructive their illusions and enchantments would be. He’d intended for them to slow down the mindless demons, not wipe them out.

“Yes, good work, Olran.”

He was getting ready to order an offensive charge to wipe out the remaining ground troops when a deafening roar echoed around them. Standing atop a large pale wyvern was a ten foot tall demon wreathed in white flames and crackling lightning. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that the rapidly approaching figure was the King of all Demons, Monarch of the White Flames.

Along with him came a second wave of demonic soldiers, each a towering demon with a purple or black exoskeleton. They were clearly far stronger than the first wave, so he’d just have to split his forces between the threats.

Before he got a chance to do much, a stream of white fire fell upon them, blasting apart a unit of skeletons and badly injuring a few demons that had been nearby. They fired back, but it was disorganized and it wasn’t exactly easy to hit a wyvern as it weaved through the air. All the while, the army of demons grew closer.

“Metus! Take your summons and the melee fighters to the front. Bring down those demons and leave none behind. I’ll handle Baran.”

She nodded and sent her summoned undead forward to engage the enemy and hopefully give Jin-Woo the time he needed to win this fight.

Jin-Woo, his summons, and a handful of demon mages, all stood as one, firing back at the monarch that rained lightning and fire down on them from above. To make things worse, that damn wyvern expertly dodged attacks and was tough enough to tank the hits it couldn't dodge.

His mana levels were okay for the moment, but each hit dropped them significantly, so he needed to do something to change up this battle. A blast of lightning struck a drider near him head on, killing the man instantly. Fuck, another person dead because he wasn’t thinking fast enough. He needed to bring that bastard out of the sky now.

He tried to focus for a couple seconds before coming up with something that may or may not have been an awful idea. He pulled most of his summons back into his own shadow, except for a couple archers, who he directed to aim for the remaining imps in the sky. The massive bone arrows that had nearly killed him nearly two months ago were now fired on his behalf.

The moment they struck their targets he called out, the power resonating in his voice, “ Arise!” The small demons fell toward the ground, but their shadows remained suspended in the air. He commanded them to fly towards the flaming monarch, knowing that this would either go very well or very badly, without many options in the middle.

“Cease fire!” The various mages and archers looked at him in confusion at why they would stop in their attempts to bring it down, but they still followed his order. He didn’t explain himself though, all of his focus was on what he saw through the imps’ eyes, waiting until they were as close to the monarch as possible, holding their position barely five feet above him.

And that was when he swapped his position with the small bat-like demon. He fell from the sky and immediately grabbed onto the wyvern to prevent himself from plummeting to the ground below. Baran turned and stared at him in anger, raising his sword in preparation to strike him down. He’d used a similar trick quite a few times, it was becoming a tried and true way to bring down powerful enemies quickly. He quickly reached out with his staff, not to cast a spell or anything like that, but to create a connection between his shadow and Baran’s.

As soon as the connection was made he dumped fifty different summons into it, who in turn pounced on their target from below. In a single instant, the wyvern went from holding up two people, to trying to fly with dozens of undead clinging to its body. It tried to gain altitude, but Spot latched all three heads onto its left wing, dragging the beast down towards the ground.

He pulled just about all his summons back into either his or Baran’s shadows as they entered a free fall. The only two still out were Spot, who was handling the Wyvern and keeping it from flying, the other was Kargalgan, who was waiting for his signal. He used his telekinesis to fly further away from Baran, who seemed intent on cutting Jin-Woo apart and drew two blood-red daggers. They needed to get closer to the ground to be in range, but he really didn’t like the look of the Demon King holding the daggers by the blade and throwing them at him.

He launched himself to the side with a burst of magic, managing to dodge one entirely, but he wasn’t so lucky with the other as it sliced deep across his shoulder before continuing to fly through the air. The pain from the very cursed looking blade was excruciating but he couldn’t be distracted from getting the timing right.

“Now!”

Right as Baran was creating a spear of fire, Kargalgan unleashed his gravity magic at full power, focused entirely on that one figure. Baran shot towards the ground like he was shot from a cannon, causing the ground to shake when he slammed into it.

As he remained hovering about a hundred feet in the air, he called out to his demonic allies that were waiting on orders.

“Hit him with everything you got! Retreat once you run out of mana and ammo!”

Most were still pretty drained after spending so much effort in fighting back the imps and the wyvern, but they gave every last drop of energy towards unleashing a barrage on their former Monarch the moment he crawled out of the crater his landing had made. Baran didn’t even try to dodge, he just braced and took every hit head on. He wondered how much of the lack of strategy was from Baran’s original personality and how much was from what the rulers had turned him into. He’d been told Baran had always faced threats directly and offensively, with little consideration for defense. But from what he understood, he was left in a near vegetative state by his big fight with Ashborn, and this was essentially a puppet that made use of his impressive physical strength while overriding his mostly inactive mind.

After a few minutes of being struck by spells and arrows, the attacks slowed as more and more of his soldiers ran out of ammo and pulled back. Jin-Woo lowered himself to the ground, staring across the corpse-covered field at Baran. The demon stood tall, seemingly unaware of the injuries across his body. He figured that was the downside of the situation. On one hand, he was too mentally gone to make strategies or plans, on the other hand, he was too mentally gone to feel pain or fear. No hesitation, no self preservation, just an unending desire for bloodshed.

Jin-Woo brought forth his entire shadow army, he was bleeding pretty bad from the knife wound, but Baran was looking far worse. His summons took formation as Baran began to charge, clawed hands coated in fire and ready to kill. It was the clash of the old versus the new, a broken monarch whose reign had ended battling one whose rule had only just begun.

As he came in contact with the front line fighters, Jin-Woo was using his new knives to carve him up every chance he got. They didn’t do much, but every wound counted, slowly bleeding him dry. At the same time, the summons in Baran’s shadow kept striking out over and over, doing everything they could to hamper his movement. He had no doubt they would bring him down eventually, but his mana reserves were taking a beating, having a summon even approach the demon would require healing as the swirling white flames struck everything in its surroundings.

One of his newer summons, a massive four armed woman with battle axes, managed to land a devastating blow between his ribs. Baran had clearly grown tired of getting hit and pulled out his most powerful and notorious weapon, Harmony, an electrified oversized broadsword that had earned its name by being so feared that the usually warring cities of the tower were willing to work together. It was unrivaled in pure destructive power, but put a massive strain on the user, even one as formidable as Baran.

JIn-Woo decided to go all in on the plan to have him bleed out, using his telekinesis to start yanking out the various arrows and spears that were jabbed into him, causing the wounds to gush blood.

Baran completely ignored his efforts and made two sweeping attacks with the weapon, clearly using up just about all of the stamina he had left. The attacks weren’t aimed at Jin-Woo, but at the biggest collections of undead. It was like someone had taken a dozen bolts of lightning from the sky and wove them together into a roiling wave of devastation. The shockwave alone threw him back, the sound of thunder from only a few hundred feet away left his ears ringing and his vision swimming.

The undead in his path were instantly vaporized, no healing, no returning to his shadow, just instant and total destruction. Even those hit directly were ripped apart, forcing his mana to work overtime to heal them. In a single moment he’d lost fifty shadows and was completely out of mana. He wasn’t sure if they would manage another one of those attacks, even with all of his remaining shadows defending, something like that might just cut through them. The only option was to kill the bastard before he got another one off.

The good news was that his new demonic allies hadn’t been lying when they said the weapon sapped its wielder of stamina and mana.  After releasing two sweeping attacks, the monarch swayed in place as his body was on the verge of shutting down, unable to handle the burden of Harmony in his weakened state.

Jin-Woo willed his undead to charge, trying to cover the ground that had been cleared with the assault of lightning and thunder. One way or another, the next blow would decide the battle.

He could have sworn he saw Baran’s blank face smile when raised the blade one last time and swung it down, the onslaught of electricity aimed directly at Jin-Woo himself. He didn’t know if his armor would be enough to survive it, but he honestly doubted it. It felt like he was watching it in slow motion. The lightning tore the ground apart, leaving nothing in its wake. Seven different demonic shadows were blasted into the void, but they weren’t enough to even slow it down.

And then it stopped.

About halfway between the two monarchs, the lighting came to a complete halt. It went from being a collection of bolts to a ball as all the energy was gathered and focused. Then, just as suddenly as it stopped, it went flying back at Baran and struck him directly in the chest. And with that, the monster finally fell, leaving Jin-Woo as relieved as he was baffled.

Baran was dead, the battle was over, and in that same moment his feeling of victory slipped away as Jin-Chul dropped his stealth ability. His arms were the worst off, little more than bone and charcoal that ended around the elbow. His face and chest weren’t much better off, his flesh covered in third and fourth degree burns. His armor had taken a large portion of the damage, but there were few things built to take the full force of a Monarch.

Jin-Woo didn’t think he’d ever moved faster in his life, running to his side as he began to fall back and just barely managing to catch him.

“No, no, no, you idiot. Don’t you dare. Don’t you fucking dare!”

He held his ear to his chest, hearing a weak thumping. Jin-Chul was alive, but he didn’t know how long he’d stay that way. His body was going into shock and he’d already passed out. The demons didn’t have any healers skilled enough for this, the best they had were potions, but he doubted they would be strong enough either. They were good for augmenting medical care, but not replacing it entirely, they-

The entire world shook and he had an idea. The portal was open again and would close over the next hour by Earth time and a day by their time. It was close to when the dungeon would have broken, probably sometime the same day from the perspective of the KHA. That meant they would have an S-rank team ready on location. And where there was an S-rank team, there would be an S-rank healer, or at the bare minimum multiple A-rank healers. If he could get Jin-Chul to them then he’d be alright.

What were the fastest ways to leave?

He could teleport to the portal since he always kept one summon there in case a quick escape like this was needed. But his cooldown wouldn’t be ready for at least another two and a half hours and he honestly didn’t know if Jin-Chul would last that long.

Maybe he could just take the route down that they’d had planned for everyone else heading back to Earth with him? No, they’d tested how long it would take for everyone to retreat back to the exit portal and that would take even longer.

He needed a way to get there directly without having to go back and forth between the damn glowing pillars that connected each floor. The only other option would be to somehow leave from the top of the tower and fly back, but the flames were going to stop that plan in its tracks.

The Tower of a Hundred Cities has stood for centuries, long before Baran called it home. Yet it was only when he made it his fortress did it gain its signature flames. I can feel the flames are still active, but they are no longer being fed and will fade in time, their creator will know how to turn them off completely.

He could tell that the voice was coming from the flaming horse skull he was still wearing, and at the moment he honestly didn’t give a single fuck about the source. He would deal with that later.

Jin-Woo walked over Baran’s body, Jin-Chul still in his arms. He gently placed his lover in the careful arms of Igris, who stood loyally at his side.

He didn’t have the mana left to heal his shadows let along revive a being as powerful as Baran, but he didn’t give a fuck about that either. Everyone kept pushing him to take the place of the previous Monarch, ruling over death and undeath. The Ashborn, a creature that was hated, feared, and betrayed by all sides. No one in this hellscape other than Jin-Chul wanted Jin-Woo the man, they all wanted Jin-Woo the monster, the monarch, the Ashborn reborn once again.

Fine.

He’d be their monster.

He’d tear everything apart and make the very concept of death his bitch. He grabbed Baran’s soul as it tried to move on and yanked it back. That piece of shit wasn't going anywhere. He didn’t use mana this time though, no easy way by just saying the magic word and creating an undead. He followed his instincts and shoved the demon’s soul into the shadow left by his corpse, forcing the two to fuse. He didn’t care about anything as foolish or pedantic as the laws of nature and reality, Baran’s soul was his and it would obey his command.

There was no resistance, Baran’s willpower had been broken long ago, rising from the shadows and taking a knee before him.

“Turn off the fire and get us out of this damn tower, now.”

What could the defeated Monarch do but comply?

Chapter Text

Baek Yoon-Ho stared down the gate as it remained defiantly red. Everyone had their theories on what had been happening inside the dungeon, but in the end it didn’t really matter. Either his friend would stumble out victorious, or they’d have to fight whatever killed him. There wasn’t much of anything they could do unless the damn thing broke, so they’d only started standing guard a few hours prior.

Right now it was just him, Lim Tae-Gyu, and a handful of A rankers. The thing shouldn’t break for another six hours, but everything else about the gate had been weird so they weren’t taking any chances. Besides, all the other S-ranks were nearby and ready to come over whenever needed, while helping to make sure everything was ready for the S-rank gate potentially breaking in the middle of a major city.

His eyes went wide as, after a week of waiting, the color changed to blue. It was close enough to when it would break that it really could be any reason for opening. Baek’s focus stayed on the gate while calling orders to rally the other S-ranks as reinforcements.

He shifted into his more beastly form and braced himself for whatever came next. He was ready for a fight but was desperately hoping that his friend hadn’t died in there. He wasn’t the closest with Jin-Woo, but they were definitely friends who helped each other out when they could. He just wished he could help more than wait to find out if the two men survived.

Tae-Gyu had pulled out his bow and taken position on top of a nearby building, ready to fire down on any enemy that came out. They had two S ranks and nearly a dozen A ranks, with the others arriving within minutes. Theoretically they should be able to hold back, if not defeat, most threats. However, his opinion on that changed in a single second.

It had barely been a minute since the gate turned blue when something began to exit. In a blur of movement it shot out of the gate and landed in the middle of the road, barely twenty feet away from him. Just the very presence of this being sent two of the hunters running and one fully passed out. A wave of malevolent energy washed over them as it slowly looked back and forth. It was like nothing he’d ever felt before. It was rage and sorrow and fear and death, all made manifest.

Now that it was standing still he got a solid look at the thing. It was about six feet tall and had humanoid proportions, but size didn’t really correlate with power once you got to the higher ranks. It seemed to be some sort of undead creature, with a flaming horse skull head and a skeletal leg being the only things uncovered by its robes and armor. The writhing cords that served as a robe and the staff with a blood red gem made it clear that they were up against some sort of legendary sorcerer.

What really drew his attention though was the person in its arms. It took a few seconds to figure out what/who he was looking at before he realized it was a horribly injured Jin-Chul being carried around. He couldn’t tell how bad it was, but it was bad enough that he was nearly unrecognizable, and didn’t seem to have arms anymore. And that just left him with so many questions he didn’t have the answers to.

Was it planning to use Jin-Chul as a human shield or hostage?

Was Jin-Chul dead or just badly hurt?

Was Jin-Woo dead too?

Maybe Jin-Chul’s burnt up body was intended to be a threat?

It hadn’t even been a full second yet, but he couldn’t risk hesitating and letting Jin-Woo’s killer unleash devastation. As he charged forward, Tae-Gyu fired three different arrows, each stronger than most artillery rounds, but they never reached their target. A wave of telekinetic force stopped the projectiles in their tracks and turned the building Tae-Gyu was on into rubble. The S-rank hunter would survive that, but it would take precious seconds to pull himself out of the collapsed building.

The monster didn’t seem to be taking any action beyond that, still looking around as if searching for something. Then it spoke, a hoarse and gravelly thing that radiated strength and conviction.

“Where is Min Byung-Gyu? Where are your healers?”

Even though it was scratchy he recognized that voice. It was hard to believe though. He came to a stop as he tried to make sense of it all. Could that really be his friend?

One of the A rankers had started to throw a spear when a figure leapt from the being’s shadow and now had the hunter hostage with a knife at their throat. “Bring me Byung-Gyu! Now!”

That shook him out of his stupor and made it very clear that this was Jin-Woo and he could figure out the many ‘why?’ questions later.

 He decided to take a chance and shifted back into his normal body, taking slow steps towards the necromancer. “Jin-Woo? That’s you, right? Byung-Gyu will be here soon. How about I take him since you look hurt too.”

That suggestion was clearly not appreciated since the shadows around them started to writhe and shake.

It took a bit of effort to suppress the instinct to growl back in response, but he knew that would just make things worse. “Alright, he’ll stay with you.”

Jin-Woo nodded, slowly shifting back and forth. Baek stood by his side until the other hunters arrived, but made sure not to get too close or make sudden movements with how jumpy the man was.

“There they are. Byung  is here and can help your friend.”

His words came out slowly, as if he were half asleep. “...That’s …Good.”

Baek moved just in time, managing to catch the two hunters before they could hit the ground as Jin-Woo collapsed.

Jinnah and Song-Yi sat quietly in the hospital waiting for Jin-Woo to wake up. It was something Jinnah had experienced too many times with too many loved ones and wished that she could do something, anything, to make it stop.

The gate had opened two days ago and both of them had been helped immediately by Korea’s only S-rank healed. The man was known to regrow entire limbs in seconds, which was enough for Jin-Chul, but Jin-Woo’s issues weren’t from physical injuries and a lot more complicated. What kept him from waking up was an extreme case of mana overexertion. He’d gone far, far beyond his limits and didn’t stop going until both of them were safe.

This condition was pretty common in hunters. There were plenty of situations where the only way to survive was to use all of your strength and then some. Normally you would only be unconscious for anywhere from a few minutes to an hour or two. In this case, his nearly unrivaled magical capacity meant they didn’t know how long it would take for him to recover.

The last week and a half had been terrible, between the constant worrying and getting evacuated before coming right back once they knew the gate was cleared. She felt selfish and terrible for thinking it since he’d been through who knows what, but she just wanted her big brother to wake up and tell her everything would be okay. That he’d take care of her like he always did.

The entire country was waiting impatiently for him to wake up too. Everyone who could evacuate the country did, since two S ranked threats on opposing sides of the country weren’t great odds for survival. Jin-Woo had handled one of them, but people were nervous about coming back if their strongest hunter wasn’t well enough to help remove the other threat as well.

The Southern coast was dealing with raids from giant flying ants, completely wiping out a few smaller islands since the attacks began. They acted like regular ants though, one or two could be handled by hunters, but the real threat was that they would get back to the hive after finding a place with life on it. Because the moment that ant reported the location of a new food supply a massive swarm would follow and strip the area of anything vaguely edible, including the people there.

In the end, she didn’t care about saving the country, the other S ranks could handle that now that he handled the other threat, she just wanted her brother back more than anything and she’d keep saying it until he was.

She sighed and started to get up. Jin-Chul would be back soon, the nurse had sent him home and demanded he get some rest, so she figured she would grab lunch for the three of them.

“Song-Yi? I’m gonna go swing by the cafeteria, wanna come with?”

“Sure, I could use the exercise, stretch my legs a bit before we sit down again.”

About fifteen minutes later, as they started coming back up the stairs, the building shook slightly and an alarm sounded over the PA system.

“We have a code Orange S in East hall of floor three. Please enter the nearest room and remain there until the issue is resolved.”

Song-Yi looked confused but Jinnah immediately knew what was going on. There were few if any hospitals that served both regular and awakened people, awakening just changed your physiology too much for the same equipment to work most of the time, especially at the higher ranks. Also, it was a huge risk to have a regular non-magic person try and do work on someone of B or higher ranks. There had been a famous case of a reflex test basically vaporizing a doctor by accident about five years earlier.

All of that was to say she’d been in hunter-specific hospitals to know what that meant, there was an agitated hunter that was behaving dangerously, whether or not it was intentional. What really caught her attention was the ‘S’ at the end. They always specified the rank of the patient since an E rank might need a few guards to stop/redirect them, but an A rank could accidentally demolish a regular building by stumbling through it while feverish or disoriented.

And there was only one S rank hunter in the building. Her big brother was awake and probably freaking out. She grabbed Song-Yi’s hand and ran back towards Jin-Woo’s room, completely ignoring the repeated warnings to stay in one of the rooms.

“Wha- Where are we going? Why aren’t we-”

“Jin-Woo is up! We have to get there first before someone does something fuckin’ dumb and scares him even more.”

Song-Yi nodded and ran alongside her as they moved up the stairs. There was a low rank hunter as a security standing guard to keep people from going down the hall they needed. Jinah wasn’t sure how they’d get past him quick enough, but Song-Yi didn’t even hesitate. The high-schooler unleashed a blinding flash directly into his eyes and kneed him in the gut, letting them move around him while he recovered. Sometimes she forgot how scrappy her friend was, but she respected the hell out of it.

It didn’t take long to find the issue, there was a dead end hallway completely blocked off by her brother’s shadows that stood in a defensive position. There was a huge spikey demon-thing that reared up when she approached, which seemed really bad in her opinion. Before it could attack, an armored hand came down on its shoulder, causing the creature to back up as Igris took over. The familiar shadow knight looked her up and down before nodding and turning around. She supposed that meant it had vetted them and would let them see her brother now. It was always really unclear just how sentient or independent the summons were.

The two girls followed Igris behind the defensive lines, quickly finding Jin-Woo hunkered behind a barricade made of twisted beds and chairs. They were still a few feet away when an invisible force yanked them over to him.

Jin-Woo looked at them with wide and panicked eyes, pulling them down to where he was crouched and spoke in hushed words.

“What are you doing, walking around on your own, that’s how you get sniped! I think they already got Jin-Chul and who knows when the mindless will attack again.”

“He’s okay. He’s not hurt and no one got him. You made it back, remember? You’re in the Seoul Hospital in the awakened wing.”

He barely seemed to catch the second part, too focused on what he felt was the most important piece of information. With a face of sorrow and hope he gave her a big hug. “He’s alive?! We need to get him back.”

It was so hard for her to see him like this. The mix of panic and confusion leaving him so sure the danger hadn’t passed. “Please listen to me, you’re not in the dungeon anymore. You won, you came home, It’s okay now.”

He stared at her for a bit, slowly coming down from the adrenaline and easing back into reality rather than the memory he’d been trapped in. He looked back and forth for a moment, as if actually seeing the area around him for the first time. The light that came from fluorescent bulbs, not eternal hellfire. They were surrounded by outdated wallpaper, not stone or scrap metal. The floors were tile, not ground up rubble and pools of blood.

“...Oh. We actually got out. This is real, right?”

Tears poured from her face as she gave him another big hug. “Yeah, it’s real. You’re back.”

“I missed you both so much. I missed you every single day.”

For the next few minutes the three of them did little more than hug and cry. It wasn’t too long before Jin-Chul came running in, having heard what was going on. He vaulted over the improvised barricade but breathed out in relief at the sight of the girls being there as well.

“I wanted to be here when you woke up, but I’m glad you had them here to help you too. It was quite jarring for me too. But we can worry about everything else later.” He pulled Jin-Woo in close, both of them leaning into a deep kiss. “We made it, we actually made it. I really thought we were going to die in there, but you really do keep surprising me.”

Both girls blinked a few times in surprise, Song-Yi speaking up first. “Huh, well that’s new.”

Chapter Text

Jin-Woo sat at home with his family, the four of them all snuggled up on the couch together. There was technically an important mission going on, but no one was cruel enough to tell him to immediately get back to fighting after waking up less than 24 hours earlier. At the same time though, they couldn’t postpone the attack against the ants any longer to wait for him to be ready. All naval trade had been cut off and a few smaller islands, both Korean and Japanese, had already been decimated by swarms of ants.

As a compromise he had one of his summons fly down and enter Baek’s shadow so he could teleport there if needed. He also had an earpiece so he’d stay in the loop for everything going on. The plan seemed solid though and a better shot than anything they’d done in the past, so he had high hopes for it.

He’d also been kept off the mission because his mana was still recovering from being over exerted to such extremes and he needed to refill his ranks with new summons. Fighting S-rank ants would only set him back further, and with the Thomas Andre fight looming over his head he needed to get back into top shape as quickly as possible. He didn’t know if/when Andre would show up, but he assumed it would be soon now that he had cleared an S-rank gate.

All this was to say that his best course of action would be to stay home with the girls and his boyfriend, drinking hot chocolate while they watched the news. He really didn’t want to go back into the field so soon and hoped that they didn’t need his help with this. His life had been nothing but going from one fight to the next while struggling to survive for months and now he just wanted to do just about anything else.

Jin-Woo looked over to Jinah and Song-Yi, who were discussing some drama from school, and smiled. He really had missed his girls. He knew from their perspective he’d only been gone a week, but for him it had been months since he’d seen his family.

Six months since he’d been able to hug his little sister. Six months since he’d been able to enjoy all the other forgettable rituals in the day, from helping Song-Yi with her homework to Jinnah sharing gossip about the boys in her class. He missed all the little things that made his life feel normal, even if they never seemed important in the moment.

But he had to be ready to deploy just in case, so he was in most of his gear as they watched the Korean and Japanese hunters make the third, and hopefully final, attempt at Jeju island.

Song-Yi looked over at him as the television droned on with praises to the hunters involved as the team entered the island by helicopter and began the mission.

“Soooo… I’m not really great at reading situations or being subtle, so I’m just going to ask. Are we allowed to ask about what happened there, or is this a thing where we don’t talk about it since it was traumatic?”

He paused for a moment, making eye contact with Jin-Chul, who gave him a small and hesitant nod. 

“Uh, yeah, you can ask. If it’s too much then we just won’t answer.” There were more than a few memories that he’d rather not share with his girls.

“Yeah, that’s fair. I mostly just really want to know who that demon lady is.”

He probably looked just as confused at the question as he felt since she gave a follow up.

“You know, the pretty one with gray skin and purple hair?”

That sounded like Esil to him. “How would you have even met her? I thought they were all being kept at some military base until the government agreed to where they should stay?”

Jin-Chul picked it up from there since he had woken up not long after being healed. “Our demon allies were reasonably nervous with you being out of commission since you were the one that guaranteed their safety. They were very hesitant to go somewhere while leaving their monarch with strangers, so we struck a deal, the demons would stay at a more secure and monitored location but Esil and Metus would visit you in the hospital. It was those two specifically since Esil has been leading and representing them and Metus is the only one other than you that can translate from demonic to korean.”

Song-Yi seemed to have only taken one thing from that. “So her name is Esil?”

JIn-Woo crossed his arms and turned so he was looking directly at her. “Nope, absolutely not. This is not going to be a thing.”

“Wow, and here I thought you’d be accepting. Way to be homophobic.”

“First off, I’m in a gay relationship. Secondly, the issue here isn’t that she’s a girl, the issue is that she’s a sixty year old demon. She only looks your age because they age slower. And finally, this is a really weird way to come out to me.”

She just shrugged in response. “It seemed like the funniest option, Jinnah thought so too.”

“I hate that I have to clarify, but were you just using this as a way to tell me you’re a lesbian or are you actually interested in a demon princess?”

Jinnah basically shrieked in excitement. “Wait, she’s a princess too?! Does that mean if Song-Yi marries her she becomes a princess too?”

He groaned in response. “Technically yes, But I’d really like to point out that she’s over triple your age and could easily break all your bones on accident.”

Song-Yi gave him a grin and wiggled her eyebrows. “That’s all good news in my book. Bring me to the gorgeous demon princess that can pick me up like I weigh nothing.” He gave an exasperated sigh as Song-Yi and Jinnah started chattering back and forth, completely ignoring the adults in the room.

“Oh!” He looked over at Song-Yi after she exclaimed and stood up. “I forgot to correct you earlier. I didn’t stop liking boys and I still strongly support Jinnah’s goal to have a shirtless manservant around the house. It’s just, you know… girls are very pretty?” She looked at the two gay men and the straight woman and realized, in mock horror, that no one else in the room shared her appreciation. “Well, I guess someone in this house has to have good taste.”

She was then knocked over by a tackle/hug from Jinnah that brought her back to the couch. “And that’s why we’re going to get you a date with the demon princess. But we’re going shopping first. We’ll have to totally update your wardrobe if you’re going to become queen of the demons.”

Both men chuckled and he shook his head, speaking in a teasing tone. “What did I do to deserve such chaotic kids like you two?”

He realized his choice of words when the girls went dead silent and stared at him for a few moments before Song-Yi eventually said something. “You think of us as your kids? Like, you see me as your daughter?”

He scratched the back of his head, trying to decide how to answer. 

“I- I honestly don’t know how to answer that. Logically I know I’m not. You’re technically an adult and not that much younger than I am. And Jinnah, you’ll always be my little sister and I’ll never try to replace dad, I know I can’t. But… I’ve been raising you for the last four years and it’s so different from just being your big brother and it’s confusing as hell.” He looked over at Song-Yi again. “And somewhere along the line you fell into that category too. I don’t have any idea what that means, but I guess we’re here now.”

By the end of his rambling he felt like he was falling apart at the seams. Jin-Chul helped by moving to put a hand on his shoulder, grounding him as Song-Yi slowly responded.

“I get that it’s totally different for Jinnah. But for me, when you all added me to this family it was like gaining a sister and two dads and I just didn’t think about it too hard past that. Like, this family is weird as fuck, but it’s been amazing to be part of it.”

Jinnah didn’t look sad or angry, just incredibly overwhelmed. She stood up and ran out of the room. He was about to follow when his earpiece chirped.

“ We need you to teleport in immediately. We have casualties and an additional S rank threat.”

Fuck, he hadn’t been keeping an eye on the mission at all with how emotional the conversation had become, so he really wasn’t sure what he was walking into. He looked over at Jin-Chul with desperate eyes. “Please go check in on her, they need me at the fight.”

“Understood. Just make sure to come back safe.”

He nodded and used his telekinesis to pull his equipment to himself, his robes and mask settling onto him and his staff landing in his waiting hand. He took a deep breath to compose himself before swapping with the griffin in Baek’s shadow.

Baek wasn’t sure how much longer they could survive like this. They’d managed to kill the queen without any major issues, but the king didn’t take too kindly to what they’d done. Their healer, Byung-Gyu, was dead with his head eaten. Their best ranged fighter, Tae-Gyu, had been eviscerated and left gutted on the floor. And now Cha Hae-In had received a deadly gash across her body and would bleed out soon if nothing was done.

The only silver lining was that they’d succeeded. The queen was dead and she wouldn’t be able to keep making more of these abominations. They’d be able to whittle them down and wipe them out for good now. Well, his team wouldn’t be part of it, he could guess that he’d probably be dead within the next few minutes.

He still had hope though. The cameraman cowering in the corner had sent the signal for reinforcements. He was pretty sure that the Japanese team had been killed by this monster first since the coms had gone silent. So all they had left was Jin-Woo. He felt bad about calling the man from one S-rank shitshow to another, but he’d rather be an asshole than splattered on the wall by a giant ant.

The ant once again shrieked its question, malice and rage rolling off the creature. Its bloodlust was so powerful it felt like a tangible thing as they fought in the caves littered with broken eggs and a dead queen. “You are all too weak! Where is your king!?” Well, that was certainly new, he didn’t know how it knew Korean, but he definitely didn’t have time to figure it out.

It was about to rake its claws across the massive Dongwook when it leapt back and took a defensive stance for the first time. He smiled, knowing damn well what it meant if something as strong as this monster was scared. Baek didn’t even have to look to know that their savior had arrived, the feeling of raw power that radiated off him wasn’t something you can easily forget.

“Are you the king of the humans?”

Baek turned away from the fight and focused on patching up the surviving hunters so they would hopefully stay that way. He couldn’t do anything else for the fight. He knew his own strength, and he knew when he was severely outclassed. The best thing he could do was evacuate anyone too hurt to run

“No. I’m something so much worse than that.” He fully stepped out of the shadows, his voice was distorted and seemed to shake the ground they stood on as the horse skull burst into black flames. “I’m a monarch.”

The ant king launched itself forward at this new opponent only to be stopped in its tracks by a hulking demon made of shadows with white flames wreathing his head.

“But if a king is what you want, let’s see how you match up against the king of demons.”

Chapter Text

The ground shook as the two monsters battled on behalf of their creators. The king that lived fought for his dead queen while the king that had died fought for the living monarch that had bound his soul.

The Ant King was faster than most eyes could track, but Baran was a berserker that could take all the damage the insect dealt. Dirt sprinkled down with every strike and blow, Jin-Woo saw a nearby tunnel collapse when the Demon King slammed his opponent into the wall, only to be slashed across the chest.

He mentally pushed for Baran to take the fight above ground and supplied him with reinforcements to help with that task. He sent forth anything small enough to maneuver through the tunnels. They didn’t attack the king directly, instead they worked to block off any other paths while fighting through the swarms of ants.

The Ant King was no fool, he could tell he was being corralled away from his true enemy, the humans and the summoner that came from the shadows. But there was only so much he could do. Hit and run tactics were his best option, speed was his main advantage, so remaining in close range long enough to push the intruder back into the tunnels was a dangerous strategy. He would also benefit from being on the surface because of his abilities in flight, but he most certainly didn’t like that he was doing what the enemy clearly wanted him to.

While the insects and undead did battle, Jin-Woo focused on the hunters. Two were dead, Lim Tae-Gyu and Min Byung-Gyu, and there was one critically wounded, Cha Hae-in.

His mind was split between keeping an eye on the hunters and the battle taking place on the mountain above them. They’d been focusing on getting Cha Hae-in ready to transport when he saw the Ant King throw Baran into the mountain with enough force to crater the ground below him. That was all the warning he’d gotten to reach out his arm and telekinetically yank Choi Jong-in back from where he was standing guard. It was just in time too, as hundreds of tons of rock collapsed where he’d been standing.

They needed to get out of the tunnels as soon as possible, but he also knew they wouldn’t leave their wounded behind. He looked back down at the corpses, and decided that making use of the man’s skills was their best option.

“Arise.”

The S rank hunters didn’t fight him, simply rising to the call and standing next to their bodies. With a silent order one of the newly created shades held his hands out over Cha Hae-in. As her flesh knit back together Jin-Woo sent a massive demonic mole forward to start digging them out.

“Let’s get out of here before this whole thing collapses. Stay close unless you are looking to turn into a pancake.”

It took a few nerve wracking minutes but they eventually got out of the oversized ant hill that had become an impromptu mountain. The S rankers watched as hordes of undead shadows fought with the swarms of ants across the island. There weren’t nearly as many undead, but they were all either upper A or lower S ranked while the ants were about the equivalent to a B ranked hunter.

Explosions of lightning, fire, and kinetic force shook the island, finally coming to an end as they saw a cyclone of white fire in the distance. With a few mighty leaps, Baran landed in front of them and knelt before Jin-Woo and presented the Ant King’s corpse.

“Good work. He was definitely stronger than what anyone was expecting to find here. Let’s see if we can’t bring him to our side.”

It took all three attempts and a reasonable amount of shouting at a dead insect, but eventually it bent to Jin-Woo’s will and rose as a shadow soldier. He looked up and down the undead Denizen of Chaos, “I think I’ll call you Beru.”

He’d have to be a bit careful with his mana reserves since he was getting a bit low after creating 3 S rank summons in a row. It wasn’t in the danger zone by any means, but he was reasonably nervous about the whole thing given his very recent experience with over-taxing his magic. He considered having his shadows continue the fight against the remaining ants on the island, but decided it would be best to leave that for another day.

On the way back to the rendezvous point they came across the dead bodies of Goto and a few other Japanese S ranks he didn’t remember the names of. With his mana reserves in mind he decided only to summon one of the three, since that on its own should be fine with the fighting over. With a quick word, and slightly queasy looks from the others at him casually reaping souls, he pulled the swordsman's soul from his corpse and created a new shadow soldier.

It caused enough of a dip in his magic that he felt a tiny bit urgent about getting back to base. Thankfully, a thumping sound came in from the distance, slowly getting louder until the propellers of the plane that brought them to the island were like continuous thunder. The spinning blades rotated to be directly upward, letting the large vehicle descend directly downwards like a helicopter.

The large bay door opened at the back, letting the S rankers move in, as they carried the bodies of their fallen allies. They were followed in by a very shaken, but impressively still living, A rank reporter that had managed to survive the horrors of Jeju Island while recording the entire time.

It would take time for every last ant to be weeded out and hunted down, but the threat had finally been dealt with after many years and deaths. Jin-Woo just leaned back in the plane and closed his eyes as the live stream ended. With the recording stopped and some level of privacy returned, Baek turned to his friend with a somber and distraught look.

“Jin-Woo, release our friends, won’tcha? Or at least just Min? He was a good friend of mine and he hated fighting, let his soul go and let him be done.”

He wanted to say yes, that of course he would let the tired hunter rest after being dragged back into a fight he’d tried to leave. He desperately wanted to assure Baek that he would never use their allies and friends as undead soldiers that were quite literally a shadow of who they once were.

He couldn’t though. Because no matter how much he wanted to do the right thing, being able to survive and win this awful war was more important. Being kind doesn’t matter when the man you love is bleeding out in front of you. He thought of all the close calls they’d had in the tower, and he knew they wouldn’t have been nearly so close if he’d had even one summon that could heal, especially an S ranked one. And he knew his future self would never forgive him if he had to bury someone he loved because he wanted to be nice.

“I’m sorry. I really am. I’ll do what I can to not use him as a fighter, but I need a healer even more than I already need strong fighters.”

“No- no, you can’t just damn a person to servitude like that. I know he would hate a life of just going from one battle to the next. It’s inhumane.”

“Of course it is! What the hell am I supposed to do instead?! This is all I can do. I can’t shoot fire or turn into a giant tiger. My power has always been inhumane. I take the souls of living beings and I strip away their willpower before I make them fight for me, usually against their allies. Hell, I’ve turned family members on each other. But if magically enslaving the innocent, both Denizen’s and humans, is what keeps my family safe, then that’s what I’ll do.”

Baek took a few minutes to process all of it, staring at the floor of the rumbling plane. Eventually he looked back up at Jin-Woo with desperation in his eyes. “And you can’t make an exception?”

“You know I can’t. This war is only going to get worse and I need every advantage I can get my hands on.”

The rest of the flight was in silence. He considered teleporting back home, but wanted to stay with the team in case something went wrong. Beyond that, it felt wrong to vanish after saying something hurtful, like he was running away from it. So he sat quietly until they got back to the KHA, the plane lowering down again onto a helipad.

As they landed and the bay door opened, they were greeted by cheers from the various members of the KHA. Before he could follow the others in leaving the plane he felt a hand on his arm. With a quick glance he saw Cha Hae-in looking up at him.

“I appreciate what you did. I’d be dead otherwise, and I’m sure anyone else his spirit saves will appreciate it too. You’re a good man Jin-Woo, you’re the only hunter I can stand the smell of.”

He was baffled by the last bit and took a second to shake himself of the shock. It was nice to be thanked while the other hunters seemed either on the fence or openly upset with what he’d done. He really wasn’t sure what to make of her complimenting his smell, it made him think of how she always had a handkerchief held to her nose. He’d thought it was allergies or something like that, but maybe it really was her being disgusted by the smell of her coworkers.

As he stepped out he saw Chairman Gunhee standing off to the side with Metus next to him. Metus had been working with the KHA since they’d gotten back to earth, mostly just sharing information and translating for any other Denizens that had something to say. Esil came by on occasion, but wasn’t there at the moment.

He walked over, a bit concerned at their expressions given their victory. “Everything okay, Chairman?”

“No, I’m afraid it isn’t. I know you’d much rather rest but it seems like another fight is on its way. Normally we’d have a better heads up, but with the raid on Jeju Island it took longer than it should have for the information to reach me.” He took a deep breath. “We just got notified a few minutes ago that Andre is on his way and will be here in about two hours.”

“Oh. Fuck.”

“Exactly. I know your forces are still somewhat depleted from your fight in the red gate, so Metus is going to help you regain your mana faster, that way you can be at full strength when he arrives.”

He nodded, familiar with her technique of transferring mana, it was draining on her, but it was definitely needed in this case. She placed a skeletal hand on his head, letting her magic flow through him. That got him most of the way to full, with Metus sitting down on a bench that was much too small for her. She then reached into her robes, pulling out a handful of jars of blue liquid.

“These will replenish your reserves as well. You’ll want to add as many summons as you can and then drink these. The royal alchemist made these, knowing that you would need whatever help you could get. I believe you met her before in the tower, she had helped take care of your wounds on the 90th floor. It’s hard for her to get the needed ingredients here, so I doubt she’ll be able to make so many anytime soon.”

Jin-Woo remembered the friendly but serious healer who’d supplied him with various potions and balms. There was a part of him that wanted to save the scarce potions, but what would be the point in saving them if he died in the upcoming battle? While the others at the association either celebrated their victory or mourned their lost friends, he didn’t have time for either and flew on one of his summons to the association’s processing center that was handling the bodies from the red gate. It was a good place to fill his ranks with strong undead, but he was also there for one in particular he’d had his eye on.

After a few attempts he got what he’d gone looking for. With a wave of his hand he dismissed his steed. The large bat he’d been using was good for mobility but just wasn’t able to keep up in terms of strength and speed. He thought hard on where he should go next, he’d prefer to get his hands on any other S ranks before the fight, plus he wanted to find a place that was far from civilians. With only one real option he took to the skies once more.

The internet would soon be flooded by photos of a massive wyvern flying over South Korea and making its way back towards Jeju Island. He made a quick circle of the island, grabbing the souls of the other Japanese S rankers, only one escaping his grasp, before landing on a stone outcropping.

Jin-Woo reached into his pocket and pulled out the incessantly buzzing phone. He knew it was kinder to answer Jin-Chul’s calls, but he just couldn’t do it. It would feel too much like goodbye, like his final words, and he wasn’t sure he’d be able to hang up if he did pick up. He instead sent a quick text before putting it in his shadow.

‘I love you. I’ll be home soon’

He drank the potions he’d been given, bringing himself back to his max and had his army of two hundred loyal undead soldiers stand at the ready as he waited for the fight that would decide who was the strongest hunter in the world.

Chapter Text

Jin-Woo stood at the ready, keeping his eye on the sky. As the minutes passed he kept his guard up, knowing that the fight of his life was rapidly approaching. Within half an hour he saw a smaller jet cut across the sky. The plane itself wasn’t that attention grabbing, but even from miles away he could feel the waves of mana, making it very clear who the passenger was.

After a few more moments he could sense the source of the magical energy rapidly approaching. It didn’t take long for the man to strike the ground like a human meteor, turning the rocky area a few hundred feet away into a small crater. Coming up out of the new hole in the ground, in all his glory, was Thomas Andre, dressed in khaki shorts and an unbuttoned Hawaiian t-shirt that showed off his tattoos. 

“Hm, nice spot you picked. You’ve got more balls than I expected. I’ll be honest, I thought you were going to run and hide or try and talk your way out of this. So you’ve got my respect for facing me head on like a man.”

There was something undeniably intimidating about how casual he was about all of this. The man didn’t bring any armor or weapons, didn’t take a defensive stance or even blink at the sight of the undead army before him. His hands were still in his pockets and his posture was relaxed, this was a man with no doubt that he would win.

“Let’s be clear. I don’t care if you respect me or not. But we both know you would have gone after my family if I tried to put this off.”

The giant of a man shrugged before rolling his neck and cracking his knuckles. “Yeah, probably. Well, no time like the present. Try to make this interesting for me, that’s why I let you live this long, remember? Not that it will matter for you too much, you’ll be dead either way.”

Jin-Woo muttered under his breath. “We’ll see about that.”

And with that there was an explosion of movement, and also some regular explosions as Jin-Woo had all of his ranged attackers fire simultaneously. Arrows, spears, and countless different spells slammed into the hunter who had made no move to dodge. Just before striking their target, almost all the projectiles curved down and hit the ground instead.

Trying to figure out what was going on and what defenses he was using, Jin-Woo mentally picked up one of his obsidian knives and shot it at Thomas. He felt as the spinning blade was dragged down away from its target. It took quite a bit of force to have it stay even vaguely on target, hitting his leg instead of his neck. The minor scratch the man received was a testament to his strength as a tank, since he’d used enough force that the blade would have cut most hunters in half.

He’d done his research on the man of course, but few had actually seen him fight even somewhat seriously so he wasn’t actually sure what kind of magic or skill he used. Since he wasn’t a caster he figured it was some sort of overpowered deflection skill, but that didn’t seem quite right. What skill was he using to deflect his attacks?

As if in response to the unspoken question, he heard a whisper in the back of his mind.

“Gravity magic is a power possessed by few beings, even fewer at this level. It can pull the mightiest from the sky and is difficult to defeat with weapons with mass. However, this magic is only partial gravity magic, making items heavier but not lighter.”

Okay, he still wasn’t really sure what was going on with the flaming horse skull that gave advice, but it was very useful. But knowing what an enemy was doing didn’t necessarily mean you knew how to get around it. The first thing he did was have his archers arc their shots more so the attacks would be coming directly down at him. That was combined with the explosions and fire that continued to envelope the area while his melee fighters began surrounding the man.

With a resounding shockwave, all of the fire, smoke, dust, and debris were cleared away. In their place was a grinning Thomas, whose shirt had been burned away and had received a handful of cuts and minor burns.

The man gave a deep belly laugh and shouted with a thick American accent. “Hahaha! Yes! It’s been a while since I fought someone that could actually hurt me. Now you’ve got my blood pumping.” His mouth curved into a wicked grin as his arm shot behind him, grabbing and crushing the skull of the S ranked rogue that had been sneaking up on him. “Oh yeah, this is gonna be fun.”

The man charged forward like a force of nature, tearing through the undead soldiers that stood against him. Thomas only grinned as he took minor wounds from powerful blows. Jin-Woo very much didn’t like how rapidly the hunter was closing the distance now that he was actually moving, sending out the newest Denizen of Chaos in his roster to run interference while he set a plan in motion.

Beru the Ant King dodged a blast of air pressure and pockets of suddenly increased gravity, using hit and run tactics to try and wear him down without being destroyed too often. With projectiles themselves being much less effective than usual, Jin-Woo focused on using his telekinesis on Thomas Andre himself rather than his knives. He didn’t have any expectations of throwing the nation ranker, but even just shifting his balance was a good use of mana since it made openings for his shadows.

It took nearly a full minute, but eventually he got the man to turn fully to his left, facing the king of ants that needed to keep healing from getting torn apart over and over. With that brief opening, Baran rose from the shadows maybe twenty feet behind his foe and unleashed a bolt of lightning, not quite as powerful as what he’d been on the receiving end of. He’d considered having Baran go all out, but didn’t want his strongest summon to be out of the fight this early if it didn’t work.

As the attack arced through the air Thomas began to angle out of the way with inhuman reflexes. Jin-Woo threw the full force of his telekinetic power into the side of his leg, making the towering hunter stumble for a brief moment, taking away the milliseconds he’d had to dodge.

Thunder rolled across the island, the dust slowly clearing from the point of impact. Thomas Andre stood firm with one arm extended, his hand open with a burnt and blistered palm, the skin nearly turned to charcoal.

He shook his hand out for a second. “Fuck! Well damn, that actually hurt. Do you have any idea how long it’s been since something caused me real pain?” He gestured to the scar on his shoulder. “It was that fuckin’ dragon. Now that you’ve fucked up my hand I guess I have to take you seriously and go all out, try not to die instantly.”

Jin-Woo hated how casual and happy the bastard was about this whole thing. He hated how cocky he was and wanted nothing more than to knock him on his ass. He wanted to make it clear that Jin-Woo wasn’t the only one who’s life was on the line in this fight.

Gold light rose off of the hunter and wove itself around him. The light spiraled faster and faster, creating a cocoon of impenetrable golden energy before falling apart and leaving a behemoth in his place. The hunter was now at least fifteen feet tall, maybe closer to twenty, with something like an exoskeleton instead of skin. The shell was white and gray with light shining out of any gaps or chinks in the armor. If Jin-Woo had thought his mana was overwhelming before, now it was on a completely different level. The very air around him seemed to warp around his new body, the image complete by his now glowing and floating hair forming a mane of sorts.

It reminded him of Baek’s skill, but on a much, much, higher level. But if Baek could take the form of a weretiger, what the hell was this guy mixed with?

“ That spell is channeling a Ruler, and a powerful one at that. This is done by adding a fragment of a dead Ruler’s or Denizen’s soul, the same method as what gave you your enhanced abilities.”

He stared at the monster in front of him, and it was certainly an intimidating image. Jin-Woo figured that meant most Rulers looked at least somewhat similar. He was barely wrapping his head around fighting this one, let alone an army of these.

He decided to test his defenses by sending Goto and two other S rank swordsmen on the attack. They barely got within ten feet of him when Thomas moved through them like a blur. In an instant all three were torn apart and would need a fair bit of mana to put back together. Then he moved for a second time, Jin-Woo spun around to see him now standing behind him. He felt himself leaning to the left, it took a moment for his mind to catch up and realize that almost half of his torso was now resting in ivory claws.

He didn’t feel pain yet, which he imagined was probably from going into shock, or maybe adrenaline. With a panicked order he had Byung-Gyu heal the otherwise fatal wound from where he was camouflaged. He was still badly shaken and trying to get his footing when his arm received the same fate, just to be regrown by Byung the next moment.

Fuck. He needed a moment to think, to come up with a plan. What were his weaknesses? He waited for a few moments as he dodged another attack. He’d been hoping the creepy horse skull was going to answer the question like it had his other ones. Maybe it could only answer some types of questions? What kind of questions could it answer?

“The Skull of the First Nightmare bestows a worthy user the wisdom of Equus, the Grand Mage and Monarch of Demons, answering all clear and direct questions on spells, magical effects, and magical items.”

Oh, that was convenient, apparently information on magical items included itself. Ok, so he had a magic encyclopedia, how could he use that to turn the tide of this ass beating? He rapidly tried to think of a good question that would be helpful. ‘What are the limitations of channeling the fragment of a ruler?’

“Channeling the full force of a fragment of a deceased ruler can provide great magical power, but it is unstable and cannot be maintained for long periods of time as it places a great strain on the mortal’s body and soul. This drain is exacerbated by the use of powerful magics while transformed.”

He’d had to heal life-threatening wounds three times before he’d heard the full answer. It was great information, but he wished it could talk faster. He thought over what he’d just learned. Okay, so it would be a battle of attrition. All he had to do was not die. Easy peasy. So what if a single headshot would probably kill him instantly, this was at least a better plan than what he had before, which was nothing.

He needed to draw this out however possible and bait him into using unnecessarily strong attacks that wouldn’t actually get Jin-Woo killed. In an effort to slow him down and hold his focus he had Kargalgan cast gravity magic on Thomas, creating a purple rune in the air that pushed down on him.

“You’re not the only one that can use gravity. Is that the only trick in your bag? Because I can do this all day.”

Thomas’s voice was a distorted and charged sound, but it was still unmistakably the cocky american. “ You’ve got a spine to ya, I’ll give you that, kid. But you’re a fool if you think this is going to take another five minutes, let alone a day.”

Jin-Woo sent his fastest undead, Beru, across the island for a very important part of his plan that was still being made. Beru was fast, but he still needed to buy more time to be ready and in position. It would cost a lot of his mana, but he was running out of options.

A wave of gravitational force threw him to the ground and crushed his lungs, forcing him to cough up blood as they were healed. He barely rolled out of the way in time as a clawed foot slammed into where he’d just been. He ordered all of his shadows to charge the man, with Baran taking the lead.

He watched them be crushed, slashed, and ripped in two, as the man gleefully tore his way through the horde of undead shadows, each a walking calamity in their own right. Only Baran could even slightly hold his own, trading attacks of kinetic force and fire with each other while his other summons attacked from his flanks. He poured everything he could into healing his injured fighters, needing them to hold the man back for just a few more seconds. Them attacking wasn’t really relevant, Baran was the only one that had been able to do actual damage, and that was in his normal form.

Every moment counted, and the twenty seven seconds it took to be ready were agonizing. He was down to just under a quarter of his mana reserves when he pulled his summons into his shadow, leaving just the two of them standing in the desolated field. That was enough to finally give the behemoth of a man pause, his head tilted as he tried to figure out what Jin-Woo’s plan was. He was more interested than worried about any possible plan or trap, charging in without any further hesitation.

Right before his enormous claws tore Jin-Woo’s head from his body, he threw himself forward and latched onto his arm. The instant they touched he teleported both of them away, swapping places with Beru, who had been sent to the deepest parts of the ant hill that was still standing.

Andre looked around in interest as they appeared in the tunnel, trying to figure out what Jin-Woo was doing. His question was answered quickly though, It took less than a second for his plan to begin to take effect. The gravitational waves that emanated off of him quickly went from a boon that protected him to a damning act that collapsed the tunnel they were in.

The good news was that the plan was working, he’d effectively trapped Thomas underground and a mountain was in the process of falling on him. The bad news was that Jin-Woo was still up against him. To get out of that mess he once again sent out his mole summon that used some sort of earth manipulation to carve a path through the shifting dirt and rock.

Andre reached out, trying to pull him back and keep him from escaping, but that only sealed his coffin further. Everytime he used gravity magic even more of the mountain was pulled onto the hunter. He didn’t get away from the attack unscathed, but a few broken bones was a small price to pay.

It didn’t take long for them to reach the surface, his mount continuing to move them further from where he’d buried his enemy alive. Once a minute had passed and they’d gotten a good amount of distance into the nearby forest he had Byung heal him again. He made sure all his summons were back in his shadow and focused on keeping his mana signature as low as possible. Which wasn’t too difficult since he didn’t have much left, but it was still important, he wanted the angry american to waste as much time as possible trying to find him again if he got out.

He watched with rapt attention as the already damaged mountain shifted, imploding in on itself from all the tunnels collapsing. He doubted it would kill the man, but he hoped it would knock him unconscious or at least wear him out so he couldn’t keep using that damn transformation. The entire mountain kept falling in on itself until it was basically flat. But then it kept sinking, turning into a divet in the ground, which then grew into an expanding chasm.

His mind went from confusion to complete terror as he saw the cause. Leaping up from the crater was Thomas Andre, a twenty foot wide black hole rising up above him, devouring everything in his vicinity and bringing forth complete and total destruction.

His voice echoed across the island. “ Did ya really think dropping such a lil’ mountain on me would stop me? ‘Cause if you did, you don’t get just how fucked you are. ” The pitch black orb continued to move and cut a ravine through Jeju, absorbing all the matter it came vaguely close to. The tree he’d been hiding behind was ripped from the ground and distorted as it fell into the event horizon.

“I’m the strongest motherfucker out here. There won’t even be dust left of you when I’m through. You never stood a chan- ” An arrow made of green energy bounced off the back of his head, barely leaving a scratch.

Jin-Woo stood defiantly in front of him, his shadows moving to surround the living cosmic event, taking shots at him whenever they could. “You forgot something important though, and it’s the reason you’re going to fail.”

A twisted and resonating laugh shook the air. “ Oh? And what’s that? Your last words, your surrender, maybe? ”

“I was the weakest hunter in the world. I’ve been in fights I couldn’t win more times than I can count. I’ll be honest, I’ve never been the best at winning, and I certainly don’t win completely very often. But I’ve mastered the art of not losing.” With that he had Kaisel the wyvern snatch him from the ground and carry him away from the growing black hole that had begun eating away at more and more the earth around it.

He then had  three different shadows attack simultaneously. Kei, his newest ice mage created a veritable glacier that was absorbed as quickly as it could be created. Baran used the last of his mana to release a barrage of white hot flame on the man, doing his best to avoid the ice structure, but in this case it didn’t matter much. And finally, Kargalgan activated one of his less commonly used hymns, the Hymn of Agony.

If the human-ruler hybrid was acting logically then he would have focused on maintaining the black hole he’d created and use it to destroy the surrounding undead and then chase down Jin-Woo afterwards. A summoner with summons wasn’t exactly an imminent threat. But Thomas Andre was a prideful creature who couldn’t let an enemy get away, even temporarily. He had a deep need to prove Jin-Woo wrong, to make him lose and not let him escape to fight another day.

That pride would be his downfall. Kei and baran added as much mass and energy as possible, making it grow and become harder to control. Kargalgan was the main attack though, Andre himself had stated how long it had been since he’d been in pain, and the Hymn of Agony didn’t care how strong your defenses were. However, the man had been called the world’s strongest for a reason, holding it steady and not backing down.

But when he tried to pull Jin-Woo from the sky while maintaining the black hole, that split in attention was what broke the camel's back and caused his magic to waver. It was almost anticlimactic as the destructive orb rippled and wobbled before rapidly shrinking back down until it was gone.

After nearly a decade of fighting, Thomas Andre, the most powerful hunter in the world, finally found his limits. He fell to one knee as his transformation gave out, the hard exoskeleton bursting into light and leaving the mortal man in its wake.

He slowly began to rise back to his feet, trying to catch his breath. “I’m… not… done… yet…”

In response he was once again given the unfamiliar experience of pain wracking his body from Kargalgan. The pain didn’t stop, and everytime he tried to get up he would be struck down by sword and flame, until he eventually stayed down.

“Enough. No more.”

Jin-Woo landed nearby and had the high orc end the hymn of agony. The American spat blood onto the ground.

“Fuck. Guess this is how it ends. You're gonna make me your undead slave or somethin’?”

“No, I won’t. I don’t like killing if I don’t have to, and I doubt your willpower is weak enough for me to take your soul easily. So no, I don’t want your death.”

The man gave a wet laugh as he coughed up more blood. “After all that, you’re just going to let me go? Bullshit. What do you want from me?”

“I want you to give a shit. We’re at war, our entire world is on the brink of destruction and you only help when you get paid more money than you’ll ever be able to spend. I want to see you at every battle, on every front line. I want to see our strongest fighter actually fighting for us. Now, if that’s too much to ask, I can slit your throat and give the undead slave option a try.”

He waved it off. “Fine. You win.”

Jin-Woo nodded and started to walk over to Kaisel before pausing. “But if you threaten my boyfriend again I’ll gut you.”

Chapter Text

Jin-Woo stumbled into his home, coming down off the adrenaline and on the verge of collapse. His undead healers meant he didn’t have any open wounds, but that didn’t stop him from being exhausted both physically and mentally. Even without injuries, he still looked like he’d played tag in a blender factory with how damaged his robes were. The vine-like material was little more than scrap at this point, but it had done its job at keeping him alive. He was pretty sure it would mend itself back together given enough time and mana, but he didn’t care too much in the moment.

He’d barely made it through the balcony door when three pairs of arms wrapped around him, holding him up. Jin-Chul stood in front of him and the girls were on either side. Fighting for his life was never a pleasant or desired thing, but the group hug was definitely a pleasant thing to come back to.

He felt Jin-Chul’s hands on each side of his head, holding him still as his boyfriend looked deeply into his eyes. It was like he needed the confirmation that Jin-Woo was truly back, that he was actually alive. There were no words to say, the deep relief and lingering fear in his eyes told him more than a conversation ever could. He leaned forward slightly, letting their foreheads touch, relaxing into it as Jinnah and Song-Yi held onto him as tight as they could from the sides.

Jinah was the first to break the silence. “It’s over now, right? You’re safe now?”

He gave her a tired smile and lied to her face. “Yeah, it’s over.”

She nodded slightly. “He’s dead?”

He wasn’t expecting the question but could understand why she’d ask. “No, he’s still alive.”

Song-Yi let go and took a step back. “What the actual fuck? You let him live? What’s going to stop him from murdering us all in revenge or something?”

“No. That’s not going to happen. He got the duel he was looking for and won’t be trying again. He knows it would end very badly if he did.”

Clearly that wasn’t the answer the teen was looking for. “Great. Just great! Let’s just trust that the murdering psycho hunter is a totally reasonable guy who won’t kill the more fragile members of the family!”

Jin-Chul cut in, trying to defuse the situation as Jinah started to sob while Song-Yi shouted. “How about we all calm down. None of us know the full situation yet so let’s not jump to conclusions. I’m sure we could all use some rest and we’ll go over this tomorrow.”

“Fuck that and fuck you! How can you be okay with this?! You’re the one in the most danger because of that lunatic. Is it so crazy that I want to feel safe for one fucking moment?! Why-”

“ Enough .”

His voice resonated with power, shaking the entire complex and bringing everyone in the apartment to a standstill. He felt like he was talking to the squabbling demon nobility again, needing to cut through the chattering and bickering. After a few moments he realized the look of fear on Song-Yi’s face. He had known that she wasn’t really angry, just scared, but he’d never wanted that fear aimed towards him, even for a moment.

“Shit. Sorry, I didn’t mean to yell like that. Can we please go with Jin-Chul’s suggestion and sleep first? I’m barely standing up right now and I know I won’t be able to explain it well.”

Jinnah agreed quickly, happy for the tense moment to be over, with Song-Yi grumbling her agreement afterwards.

As he laid in bed he hated that she was right about how much danger they were all in. On one hand, Andre really wasn’t a threat to them anymore more and he truly did believe that he would leave them alone. The man was exactly what Song-Yi said, but he was also straightforward and wasn’t one to lie about his intentions. If Thomas planned to kill someone he wouldn’t scheme about it, he would tell them directly what he planned.

On the other hand, none of that changed the fact that they were in a proxy between interdimensional beings they barely comprehended. And now that he’d won this fight he was officially the strongest and would be called upon for all the worst situations. He’d be on the frontlines for every new apocalyptic threat. If nothing else, sparing Andre meant that someone else would be taking on the enemies no below nation ranked could. But he couldn’t say that to a frightened teenager that just wanted to feel safe.

The next morning he got up and was happy to have a slow start to the day. Jin-Chul groaned and rolled over after being woken up by Jin-Woo leaving the bed. They’d tried sleeping in separate beds a few times but found that it would only lead to one or both of them waking in a panic and searching for the other. He figured they’d get over it eventually, but for now they were both still too shaken by everything that had happened to spend much time apart.

He sat at the edge of the bed and grabbed his new skeletal leg from where it leaned against the nightstand and went into the kitchen once it was fully attached. The girls didn’t seem to be up yet, or at least were still in their rooms, so he figured he would get started on breakfast. Jin-Chul came out soon later and started helping. He took over cooking the eggs and gave Jin-Woo a genuine smile, as he did around most meals lately, wordlessly communicating the happiness and relief at eating actual food. They couldn’t eat anything hard yet because of the damage to their gums and teeth, but it was still a pleasant moment of appreciating that they were back home.

He paused for a second when he noticed Jinnah trying to sneak past him to get into his room.

He looked directly at her and chuckled. “What are you doing now?”

She stood up straight as she realized she’d been caught immediately. “Well… You see, I may or may not have left a lot of very embarrassing messages and was planning on getting rid of them before you could see them. I wouldn’t want you to think I care about you and get a big head about it.”

He could tell she was trying to deflect with humor but decided it was better to just let her do what she wanted. Even if he was definitely curious about whatever she’d said while she thought he was on his way to his death, he could respect that she didn’t want to share that now that he was fine. He had a shadow demon partially emerge so he could grab the phone from among the various pieces of equipment the creature carried.

“Here you go, don’t go snooping through anything else though.”

“Damn, I guess looking in your room wasn’t the best plan after all since I don’t think I can exactly sneak my way into your shadow.” She started tapping away before getting a meaningful look from Song-Yi, who’d briefly peaked her head into the hallway. “Don’t worry girl, I got you covered.”

It was definitely odd to be experiencing this again, having something said as a last word before death to then become some level of awkward when he didn’t die. Granted, the first time it happened led to him being with Jin-Chul, so it wasn’t all bad, but he’d definitely prefer for it to not become a pattern.

They continued on in a comfortable silence for a bit until his little sister looked up at him again. “Just so you know, I think you made the right call. I won’t ever get mad at you for being a good person, even if it’s the harder option. I don’t think anyone’s actually mad at you, it’s just a freaky situation and we’re all doing our best …even if our best looks a little like yelling and crying.”

“Thanks, I really appreciate it. I know it’ll take time, but things will get better.”

Luckily, not much more excitement happened that day. With tensions lower they all sort of just pretended that the argument never happened so they could just move on. It would probably be more mature and responsible to address it and talk it out, but he just didn’t have the emotional energy to start another fight unless it truly couldn’t be avoided.

The days came and went without much fanfare from that point. There was paperwork to fill out and reports to file, but luckily it was all stuff they could do from home, so they got to rest their bodies at least. One downside he’d found was that, since he was working for the government, he was a lot easier to contact by strangers. He was sure that just about every organization had reached out to his tiny department at this point, guilds from around the world wanted him as their leader, governments wanted him to deal with longstanding dungeon breaks like Jeju Island, gear manufacturers wanted to buy the materials from the red gate off of him. Not to mention that seemingly every single news outlet, reporter, and blog wanted him for an interview.

Since there weren’t many people in the Special Projects division, he had to sort through a lot of it personally. As he leaned back on the couch he considered that he might need to talk to Gunhee about getting some more secretaries or assistants, because the department inbox was filling faster than him and the single secretary could get through it.

After getting through a fair amount of requests, and denying most of them, he got up and went to take a shower.

He paused as he looked at his reflection in the mirror, a body so changed it felt like a stranger was looking back at him. But it wasn’t because he looked different than when he’d gone into the dungeon. No, he’d gotten over that months ago as he grew used to his pale skin and gaunt figure. It was the fact that he’d changed drastically once again from how he’d grown accustomed to.

Sure, a lot of the obvious stuff was mostly the same, he still looked somewhat sickly from being away from the sun for so long and his hair was much longer, but his teeth were still throwing him off. Specifically, the fact that he had them again, even if the new ones were fake. He’d lost seven teeth in the tower and the dentist had needed to pull four others that couldn’t be saved. His cheeks were less gaunt and the bags under his eyes were nearly gone. He felt like he was starting to look like a person again instead of one of the undead he ruled over.

For all the positive change, improving didn’t mean he was back to his old self, far from it. He stared at himself, with a fake leg, fake teeth, and a body that seemed more scar than skin, wondering how much more of him would be replaced by the time this was over. His wounds ached even though they’d been healed long ago, like his body hadn’t realized he wasn’t still dying in some forsaken hellscape.

He couldn’t let it get to him. He had a family to protect, to provide for. He had a country, maybe even an entire world, that needed his help to survive this war that kept ramping up further and further. It was hard to be both Jin-Woo the loving brother and Jin-Woo the Monarch of Death and Rebirth, but he’d have to find a way to balance it.

Later that day he rested in the living room as Jinnah and Song-Yi came back from their recently reopened schools. It had been a hard transition for them to go back to the regular day to day stuff, but he knew how important it was for them to have that consistency, to have something normal in their life. He frowned as he caught a glimpse of the handle to one of his knives in Song-Yi’s backpack. He’d need to talk to Jin-Chul about that later before doing anything about it. He didn’t like the idea of her being armed with such a dangerous weapon, but he also didn’t want to start up another argument so soon.

He leaned back and decided not to worry about it for the moment and instead just smiled as he listened to Jinnah’s gossip for the day. She pouted at him as his work phone rang, cutting her off. He sat up when he saw the caller id.

“Sorry, it’s my boss, it might be important.” He quickly accepted Gunhee’s call before it went to voicemail. “Hello? Everything okay?”

“Jin-Woo, glad I caught you. Yes, everything is fine, we actually have good news for once. You'll want to come to the base where the demons are. We’ve been working with them on expanding our magical knowledge.” The man took a deep breath. “And it looks like we may be able to cure your mother.”

Chapter Text

Even with all of the near-death experiences, Jin-Woo may have moved faster than ever before. He wouldn’t admit it out loud, but he’d long since given up on the hope of his mother being saved. He didn't have any shadows on the Chairman, so there were quite a few sightings of him and his wyvern streaking across the sky as he rushed to the military base where the demons were staying and magical research was being conducted.

He would apologize later for the door that may have been torn off of their hinges, but in his defense they were in his way. Gunhee and Metus were likely still meeting with the general in charge of the facility. They were focused on the logistical and planning side of things, but he didn’t care at the moment and they were kind enough to not expect him to follow normal procedure or go through the proper channels. He went directly to the source of this potential miracle, the demonic apothecary that had helped him on floor 90 of the demon tower.

He stopped in front of the old healer, Lishem, who was working with an odd mix of demon and human tools, beakers, an enchanted cauldron, a centrifuge, and a mortar and pestle made from materials Earth had never seen before. She looked up at him in surprise at the sound of the doors breaking open. She carefully put down the vial she had been using and took a knee in front of him.

“My lord, I have been looking over the ingredients available to us, and I may be able to create a potion to heal any illness or injury.”

He already found it too good to believe in when he was told they could cure his mother’s eternal sleep, but every illness? That felt like nothing but false hope.

“You may rise. Tell me more about this? What makes it so potent and what do you need to make it?”

“There are several options, but the main ingredient is why it is one of the most rare and powerful elixirs that have existed. The base is primarily the blood of a dead monarch, which is mixed with a powerful source of life magic. This is then tempered by enchanted water of the highest quality that brings forth its healing properties while suppressing the deadly aspects.”

She waved her hand dismissively through the air. “There are technically other minor ingredients, but those are the irreplaceable ones. Now, we can meet the first two with Baran’s body and a piece of your staff, which has the power of the World Tree. Finally, Metus has a vial of spring water from the Echoing Forest, I’d rather have water from the Grand Spire for the best effect, but it’s a fine option.”

He didn’t know what either of those places were and was more than a little overwhelmed by all the information. “And you’re sure you can pull this off?”

She frowned slightly. “No, I’m not. This has been made a mere handful of times throughout all of time and by Denizens far greater. The reason this elixir is difficult is the ingredients, not the methods, so I should be able to make at least a few doses. But I can think of few things more worthwhile to attempt than assisting my Monarch and his ailing mother.”

For a moment he wondered why she was willing to do so much for someone that was basically a stranger. Sure, he was their leader, but that only happened a few weeks earlier. After thinking about it he supposed even in their world, where royalty were mostly figureheads, most people would be pretty excited about working directly for a king no matter how recently they were crowned. It was still weird as hell to think of himself as some sort of magic royalty instead of just a random guy, but he supposed he’d get used to it eventually.

He paused as he realized something odd. “Wait, how do you even know about my mother being sick?”

“Metus mentioned that it was the reason Gunhee suggested I look into cures for Mana Absorption Disorder. That’s a tricky one to cure completely because the issue comes from the very nature of the being. It is like asking a fish to breathe air or a plant to eat, possible, but not easy.”

He wasn’t sure if they had the same definitions of ‘possible’, but he didn’t feel like asking about what that meant at that moment. Her comparison made him afraid he was being given hope only to be burned by the news that she couldn’t be saved.

She gave him a gentle smile and put her hand over his, clearly noticing his concern. “Do not give into fear, my young Monarch, everything will be okay. Do you want me to start creating the potion?”

“Yes, absolutely. Here’s my staff, since it sounds like you’ll need that.”

She took the piece of Yggdrasil that he’d taken from his shadow and set it to the side. “Thank you, I should only need part of it. I’ll get started right away, if you’d like to stay nearby then you can tell me about your parents while I work.”

“Thank you Lishem. What do you want to know?”

“Hm, were they both warriors like yourself? I don’t know much about humans and what they do.” She walked back over to a worktable and started grinding mana crystals with her pitch black mortar and pestle, turning the brittle stone into a fine powder. Even though she was an old woman and a healer, she was still easily an A ranked Denizen.

He took a seat and thought of what to say. “My dad was. Even before the gates he was a-”

He paused as he realized there wasn’t a word for ‘firefighter’ in the demon language, which he supposed made sense if you were a species that preferred living in and around pits of hellfire. Well, if there already wasn’t a word, then he might as well make them sound as badass as possible.

“-An ax wielder, working with a team to rescue people in need. They are some of the first to arrive at a crisis, so everywhere that has humans will have them to help protect people. Once the attacks started, he decided he could help more people by fighting against the invasion and became a hunter. At the time, he was one of the strongest in the world, doing everything he could to stop the controlled Denizens from hurting people.”

He sighed sadly, Lishem listening attentively as she stirred the cauldron of boiling demon blood. “But I suppose it wasn’t enough. One day he didn’t make it back. His team said he’d stayed behind so they could escape the gate. When I was younger I was angry that he’d valued those strangers over the family that was waiting for him at home. I know that he wouldn’t have been the amazing man and father he was if he was the kind of person who would leave people behind, but it still hurts.”

The old demon patted him on the shoulder. “You shouldn’t be ashamed of that anger. There is no act more honorable than giving your life in a battle to protect those who stand behind you. But honor doesn’t feed your children.”

Before he’d even started to process those words she went back to meticulously measuring out water that seemed to hum and glow with energy. “Please step back my lord, this is very dangerous for the undead. Metus only had it to prevent capture, but the Rulers that captured her took her mind before she had a chance to use it.”

Talking with Lishem was an emotional rollercoaster. Every other sentence she seemed to switch between a sweet old lady with hard earned wisdom and a demonic chemist that casually said horrifying pieces of information. He was glad that Metus had never used the enchanted water like some sort of cyanide pill for the undead, he doubted he would have survived the tower without her. At the same time though, he could understand wanting that option when fighting beings that commonly used mind control on their prisoners.

After a few moments of silence she looked back over at him. “My apologies for interrupting, please continue.”

He did his best to recenter himself as she added the water to the cauldron of boiling demon blood, slowly turning it from nearly black to a more human colored blood.

“Yeah, that’s a bit on my father, but I guess I haven’t said much on my mom. She wasn’t a fighter or anything like that. She wasn’t strong in a physical way, but I’ll always look up to her and try my hardest to be like her. No matter what happened or what went wrong, she was always calm, doing everything she could to make sure we wouldn’t have to worry.”

He kept talking as she nodded along, taking out a razor sharp knife and whittling off tiny pieces from the otherworldly staff, trimming it down slightly. It was a bit thinner now, but you wouldn’t really notice the difference unless you were looking for it.

“I don’t think I could have ever understood just how much she did for me and my sister until she wasn’t around. Especially after losing dad, she was the one we relied on and was there for us without hesitation. She was the one who taught me to never give up, but also to be kind whenever I can. To never compromise who I am just because things get hard.”

Lishem chuckled slightly, putting the tiny fragments of Yggdrasil into a crucible of sorts, the wood burning a brilliant rainbow of shifting colors. “Then I suppose I owe this woman my life and sincerest gratitude. As we continue to live only by your mercy. Many would not be so forgiving of those that served the man who betrayed them. Even though we had been soldiers under Baran’s banner, you forgave us for the pain our leader caused you and took us under your protection.”

He wanted to correct her, to tell her that he was just being reasonable, because in his mind it would have been insane to kill the demons that weren’t fighting him directly, but he knew that mentality wasn’t unique to Denizen’s and Monarchs. There were quite a few people in all parts of the government that were still calling for their deaths solely because of what they were and who they used to serve, regardless of the loyalty they had shown Jin-Woo.

“Hopefully you’ll get the chance to do that soon. And I’m sure she’ll want to meet the person that saved her. I don’t think I could ever repay you for everything you’re doing for me and my family. ”

She added in the Yggdrasil ashes, causing the concoction to writhe for a few moments before settling again, now with a more vibrant hue. Carefully measuring the elixir, she handed one of the six blood red vials to Jin-Woo.

“Do not undervalue the gratitude of a Monarch, that is more than enough. But if you wish to grant me a favor, I would ask that you look for a way to reunite me with my grandson, who is still under the control of the Rulers with the others we had to leave behind. Now, give that to your mother and make sure she drinks all of it.”

As he gently took the vile from her, he put a hand on her shoulder. “Thank you. You have my word that I will do whatever I can to help your family the same way you did for mine.” With that, he disappeared into wisps of shadow, switching spots with the undead he’d had guarding his mother.

Chapter Text

Well hello reader people,

A few months ago I started editing/rewriting this fic since I started it almost 3 years ago and I'm a much better writer now. The main things that changed were just making it flow better and making the pacing better in the first few chapters. I also added a new chapter 1, starting the fic in the double dungeon rather than when he woke up.

In case you don't want to re-read the entire thing, the only real plot changes are:

*cleaning up the plot hole of why jin-woo's leg wasn't healed (the answer is I'm saying no wound can be healed twice, so because Joonhee healed it in the dungeon it's a done deal).

*it's now explicit that jin-woo reawakened looks almost exactly as his dad did pre getting trapped in the dungeon. we only see it for one panel, but there's a picture of pre-dungeon dad and he's a spitting image of s-rank jin-woo.

*the interactions between Jin-Chul and the girls is more gradual now, since it didn't really have any lead in and was pretty jarring originally.

*Chapter 31 was updated to have jin-chul's break down more minor, since it was feeling a bit ooc for him, i think the rewrite of it feels more natural.

Anyways, I think it's a genuinely much better and more consistent fic now, with chapters being the same length and just having a better feel to it. If you feel like re-reading it I definitely think it's worth it.

Also, I made a discord thing because that seemed like a neat plan. I haven't done that before so it's pretty bare bones but we'll see how it goes. https://discord.gg/x9fWfV9bdj

Chapter Text

Park Kyung-Hye found herself waking slowly, but with a clear mind and an energetic feeling. She was usually groggy for at least half an hour after waking up, and that had only gotten worse as her Eternal Sleep progressed over the last month. That thought snapped her to attention, how was she awake?

She opened her eyes, seeing the hospital room she’d gotten used to spending a fair amount of time at. What caught her eye more than anything else though was the figure sitting by her bed. She blinked a couple of times and he was still there.

Maybe she’d died, and that was why her body felt better than it had in over twenty years and her dead husband was crying by her side. She reached out and took his hand.

“It’s okay darling, I’m here now-” She was about to say her husband’s name when she realized something was wrong. He looked almost a decade younger than the last time she’d seen him, which was another point for this being the afterlife. Now that she was looking, she noticed all sorts of differences, his hair was different, there were scars on his neck and face that had never been there before, and most of all, his eyes were just a bit too blue.

The realization hit her like a freight train. “Jin-Woo? Is that you darling?”

He wiped his tears away and gave a nod. “Yeah, mom, it’s me. Jinnah will be here soon. We’ve both missed you so much.”

Oh god, he looked so different than when he saw her just a few moments ago. “How- how long have I been asleep?”

She caught him glance to the side, like he didn’t want to share the answer but thankfully did anyways. “It’s been about five years.”

Kyung-Hye did the math for a second. “So you’re twenty four now?”

He tilted his hand back and forth. “Sort of, but I can explain that later. Jinnah’s seventeen, but she’ll be eighteen in a couple months.”

She put a hand on each side of his face and just stared at her darling son. She could see in his eyes just how much he’d been through, the sort of pain and burdens that wear a person down. They were the eyes of someone who’d seen some of the worst the world had to offer and her heart broke to see those eyes on her little boy.

“I’m so sorry. I’m so, so sorry that you’ve had to face this alone.”

Jin-Woo leaned down and pulled her into the gentlest hug, like he was afraid she would break at the slightest pressure. “It’s okay, it’s not your fault. Besides, you’re back now, so it’ll be alright.”

For a few minutes all they did was hold each other as she gave him reassurances that things were okay now, that she could help him carry whatever his burdens were.

Soon enough, her little girl came barreling into the room. She wasn’t as much of a kid anymore, and had purple hair now, but everything about her was undoubtedly her baby (she didn’t care how old her kids were, they would always be her babies).

Jin-Woo moved back out of her way as she hit the bed’s guardrail and went sprawling across both her and the hospital bed. Her little girl looked at her with tears and snot running down her face. “Mom!”

While her son made every movement and touch like she was made of porcelain, her daughter gripped her like she might disappear if she let go. All she could really do was rub her back and occasionally wipe her face. Maybe that was enough for now, providing a physical and constant reminder that she was there and that she was awake.

It took nearly half an hour for everyone involved to stop crying. Kyung-Hye paused in her constant hugs and affirmations when something crossed her mind. 

“I probably should have asked this earlier, but how did I wake up? Did they discover a cure for Eternal Sleep?”

Her son scratched the back of his head and looked to the side. It reminded her of when he was little and trying to convince her that his grades were so good that there wasn’t any need to read the report cards. At Jinnah’s very interested expression she could guess that she hadn’t been told yet either.

“Sort of. We were able to make a cure, but… no one else has gotten it.”

“What’s the issue darling? Is it that this was experimental or something? I suppose I don’t love being the test run, but it worked, right? I’m guessing they’ll give it to everyone else now.”

He looked even guiltier if possible. He mumbled something she couldn’t quite hear, only catching the word ‘six’.

“What’s that, honey?”

“We only had enough to make six doses of a drug that can cure any disease and we can’t make more. No one else is getting woken up.”

She slowly put the pieces together in her head. With how he said ‘we’ she was assuming he helped with the creation of this miracle drug, as some sort of scientist she supposed. As part of the team he got to use one of the six and used it to bring her back, and now he feels bad for waking her up when there’s thousands who are still in comas.

“I see…” She could understand his guilt, she immediately felt it too. Why should she be freed instead of someone else? She supposed she just got lucky. Or was it luck? She looked at her son, still sitting next to her bed, realizing just how much he was like his father. How long had he worked, how much of his life had he dedicated to waking her up? “Thank you. For everything.”

“I’d do it all again if it means saving you.” She didn’t know what he’d been through, but she could guess it was bad based on that statement and how solemn Jinnah looked when he said it.

She was about to say something when his phone chimed. He looked down and smiled slightly. “Looks like Lishem will be here soon. She’ll make sure there aren’t any side effects and then you should be good to leave this place.”

It didn’t sound like any name she heard before, especially with the odd pronunciation that put a lot of emphasis on the ‘sh’, sounding a bit wispy and almost snake-like. She must be some foreigner, but she wasn’t sure from where. “Is she a doctor you worked with?”

He paused, as if unsure. “Yeah… doctor is probably the best word to go with. She can be a bit odd at times, but she’s very genuine and kind. I think it’s mostly a cultural difference more than anything else.”

She nodded, feeling a little vindicated on guessing that right. “So, is this Lishem a friend of yours, or something more perhaps?” Even if he was beating around the bush for some reason, a scientist creating world changing medications was not a bad choice of partner.

Before he could answer Jinnah started laughing hard enough that she had to sit down before she fell over. “Hahaha, yeah Jin-Woo, answer the question. Are you getting nasty with the demonic old lady?”

She glared lightly at her youngest, “It was my mistake to assume that they might be together. But that doesn’t give you a right to insult the woman that helped save my life.”

That was enough to make her laughter quiet down, now trying to backtrack. “No, wait, I wasn’t being mean to her. She’s literally a demon. Grey skin, pointy ears, super strength, the whole thing, she used to live in a castle made of fire I think?”

Jin-Woo shook his head. “The castle was normal, the tower it was in was the one on fire.” He turned his attention back to her. “She is telling the truth though, she is actually a demon. Lovely lady though.”

She took a deep breath. “I think I’m missing a lot here. The monsters aren’t attacking anymore, and are becoming doctors now? Is that what you’re saying?”

Her eldest spoke up again. “I guess? Well, only for some of them. We can explain the rest later, a lot’s happened in the last year. The basics are that the ‘monsters’ are being forced to attack and we managed to rescue some from that and now they’re helping out where they can.”

She gave a very slow nod, deciding to deal with all of that later. The monsters that killed her husband and millions more were now the victims. Her knee jerk response was anger at her son for siding with the abominations that killed his father, but pushed that down because there was clearly a lot of information that she hadn’t heard yet.

After Jinnah teased her brother a bit more about him dating Lishem, the woman in question arrived. She was a wiry woman with long white hair tied back, walking with twisted wooden cane, and under five feet tall with how she was hunched over. The only things that looked ‘demonic’ were her faded purple skin, pointed ears, and reddish eyes. Though, with the white hair and pale skin, it looked more like albinism than anything otherworldly.

She couldn’t say she knew what hunters had been up to for the last five years, but she knew a fair bit from her late husband. And she was quite sure he would have mentioned it if the monsters were little old ladies who happened to be albino with slightly different ears.

If this is what the ‘monsters’ of today looked like she could see why hunters were more willing to work with them. At the same time, she felt like she was being pranked, demons were huge red skinned abominations with wings and pitchforks. Kyung-Hye was about to ask if they were serious when Lishem spoke, rapidly cementing the knowledge that this woman was not human.

It was an odd whistling and crackling noise, and definitely not a noise she could replicate. Adding to the insanity, her son started responding to her in the same way, going back and forth as they checked her pulse, pupils, and various other things. The last test(?) was pricking her finger to draw a drop of blood, which the woman then sniffed and tasted before nodding.

The baffling old woman clearly said something that her son didn’t like, or at least didn’t expect, based on the gasp of shock and then very rapid whistling sounds. He looked at her, then the old woman, then back at her, before standing up and leading Lishem outside the room to talk some more. In the process of that she saw one of his legs was literally just bone, and glowing slightly blue at that.

With just the two of them in the room, she looked over at Jinnah, who didn’t seem that alarmed by anything that just happened.

“Honey, I know Jin-Woo said he’d explain things later, but I’ll admit I’m quite confused at what’s happening and could really use the cliff-notes on why any of that just happened.”

“Uhhhh, sure. So, Jin-Woo will know more about the specifics or whatever, but I can give you the jist. After all of this happened” She gestured vaguely towards the hospital bed “money got real tight and he had to take up hunting to make ends meet. He wasn’t great at it, but it was enough to get by, then there was this shi- uh, I mean, not great dungeon like six months ago. Bunch of big statues took his leg and almost killed him, oh it’s important to know that he still gets jumpy about that stuff, doesn’t like talking about it and really doesn’t like being around statues, so parks have basically been banned in the family. We can talk about that later, but yeah, don’t bring him places with statues.”

Jinnah nodded to herself, as if patting herself on the back for remembering to mention her brother’s apparent fear of statuary.

“He got better though, mostly, still missing the leg but re-awakened as an S-rank. We didn’t find out ‘til later, but turns out he got his soul mixed up with some god-king of undeath, so now he does a bunch of weird shadow zombie stuff, but we got a great dog out of it, so it’s not all bad. After making friends with a furry and getting a bit more traumatized he became a bureaucrat with his not-yet-boyfriend-handsome-government-man. Then they did a dungeon raid where time was messed up so he was gone for 6 months even though it was only like a week for us. When he came back he had a bunch of demons with him and he’s basically their god-king now by taking up the mantle of the dead-dude who’s soul he has.”

Jinnah paused for a second. “Uh, I think that’s most of it. Oh, he also got rid of the Jeju ants and kicked a guy’s ass- I mean butt, so hard that he’s now considered the strongest guy in the world. Yeah, that about covers it. Any questions?”

She was quiet for a moment. “No, I think I got it.”

“Wait, really? Song-Yi, she lives with us now, always says I leave out key parts of stories.”

“Yeah. I’m assuming one of two things are happening. Either this is a coma dream, because you just said my son is a god-king that talks to demons, or the world has fully gone insane. Right now my guess is coma dream.”

Jinnah was about to correct her before stopping and reconsidering. “Honestly, that’s fair. Like, you’re wrong but shit- fuck, I mean stuff. Stuff has gotten really weird pretty fast, I can’t imagine trying to figure it all out at the same time.”

“Jin-Woo really didn’t enforce not swearing much, did he?”

“Yeah… He thought that living through the apocalypse gave a free pass on swearing about it.”

She supposed that made sense, even if she didn’t particularly like the amount of inappropriate language being used.

Jin-Woo came back in, this time without the elderly demon, his hands fidgeting more than a bit.

“So, I have good news and news that isn’t bad but is very intense and might be good or bad depending on how you feel about it.”

Jinnah chuckled at his phrasing, “Good news first, you overdramatic goof.”

He fully ignored Jinnah’s jab and continued on. “The good news is that you’re completely healthy. All signs of Eternal Sleep or atrophy are gone and you’re in top condition. The other news is that you're completely healthy. All signs of cellular degradation are gone.”

“Hell yeah!”

He tilted his hand back and forth in response to Jinnah’s enthusiasm. “Sort of. Basically, mom, you won’t age anymore. Which isn’t bad, but immortality definitely wasn’t the goal here and feels wrong to do without permission. Also, it’s good but overwhelming to know it’s a thing that exists since it was implied that I might also be living for roughly forever.”

She watched as her son explained he cured aging but with the expression of trying to talk his way out of trouble while still holding the box of cookies she’d told him were for later. As her mind tried to reconcile the little rascal she raised with what was happening, what else could she do but laugh at the absurdity of it all?

She slowly got out of bed and pulled him into a tight hug. “You don’t need to worry so much. We’ll figure everything out, but for now I’d just like to go home.”

Chapter Text

Jin-Chul sat in the waiting room with Song-Yi as the Sung siblings reunited with their mother. He could admit that he was a bit on edge, waiting to hear news on Park Kyung-Hye. All he really knew was what Jin-Woo had quickly told them, which basically boiled down to having some potion and that it worked. He patiently waited though as the two spent time with their mother and likely had doctors/Lishem checking her over.

He was torn between being happy because they finally found a cure, and being deeply concerned because they were using experimental demonic potions on the unconscious woman. Jin-Chul wouldn’t say it out loud, but internally he wished that Jin-Woo would have slowed down and done any amount of research or checking in with human doctors before she grew horns or whatever unexpected side effects came from it.

He looked over at Song-Yi, who seemed to be struggling as she fell back on her resting glare that she did when she was anxious.

“They’ll be alright. I know emotions are high, but from everything we know so far she should make a full recovery.” He certainly said it with more confidence than he felt, but he truly did believe that Jin-Woo would find a way even if something went wrong.

She seemed confused for a fraction of a second before agreeing. “Huh, oh yeah. I’m sure she’ll be okay.” 

Jin-Chul took that to mean he’d guessed wrong and she was upset/worried about something else. “Do you want to tell me what’s bothering you?”

He and Song-Yi weren’t nearly as close as she was with Jin-Woo, but they had at least some rapport from living together and just being around each other a lot. As she stared at him for a second, she seemed to be doing the same math in her mind of whether or not she trusted him enough to share what was on her mind.

“I’ve met her before, ya’know? Back when me and Jinnah were little and she’d watch us sometimes, but I could tell she didn’t really want to. I don’t blame her, I was a little shit and we were rambunctious and annoyed the hell out of her.”

She took a breath as she thought something over, Jin-Chu waiting patiently to hear where this was going. “What if she wakes up and still sees the same annoying brat? I get Jin-Woo, I know how he works, and I know he would never kick me out. But what if his mom asks him to? I don’t expect him to pick me over her and I’ll be back to being on my own. I know I’ll figure it out but I don’t want to lose this.”

By the end she was basically hyperventilating, clearly spiraling over this. He supposed it made sense from her perspective. He knew that she struggled to trust people and tended to assume they thought the worst of her. So he could imagine that adding any new variables would be nerve wracking for the young girl.

“Well, I don’t believe that’s something he would ever do, but I also don’t think me saying so will change how you feel. I don’t know this woman other than stories, but I do know and care about you quite a bit. If that worst case scenario happens, you’ll still be welcome with me and in my apartment. It doesn’t get much use other than storage at this point, so I’d be happy to let you stay there.”

She stared at him for a few seconds, looking for any sign of deception before nodding and leaning her head against his shoulder. She seemed at least a bit less nervous and gave him a mumbled ‘thanks’ before doing her best to act like the conversation never happened.

They sat there for another twenty minutes before the trio came by, walking with an impressively healthy looking woman. Jinnah had a huge smile, the woman seemed happy but slightly overwhelmed by everything, and Jin-Woo looked like he was both having the best day of his life and half a step from dissociating in the middle of the hospital. So he could guess that things went well but something unexpected happened. As Jin-Woo stepped aside to fill out discharge forms, Jin-Chul and Song-Yi got up and walked over to them.

“Hello, Mrs. Park. I’m Woo Jin-Chul, it’s good to finally meet you.”

She looked him over real quick, seeing the crisp suit and professional presentation, something that wasn’t quite judgement in her eyes. “It’s good to meet you as well. Jinnah mentioned a ‘handsome government man’ in my son’s life, is that you?”

He chuckled and shook his head a little. “Yes, that would be me. Even after knowing me awhile now, that's still her favorite nickname.”

“Now, from what she said it sounds like you’re either dating my son or at least Jinnah thinks you should be.”

Ah, that would explain why he was getting sized up. It wasn’t a look of dislike, it was a mother trying to decide if he was worthy of being with her child. “Yes, we’ve been together for a few months, so it’s still relatively new but I plan on being there for the long haul.”

She seemed to accept that and turned her attention to Jinnah and Song-Yi, who were chittering between themselves. While they were talking he stepped over to Jin-Woo and tapped him on the shoulder.

“I’ll go out and grab the car and bring it around. I brought the work car, so there should be enough room for everyone.” After Jin-Woo nodded he continued. “By the way, Song-Yi is pretty anxious about the whole thing because of her issues with change and new authority figures. I think I handled it, but didn’t want you taken by surprise if it came up.”

He let out a sigh. “Thanks, I’ll keep an eye on it.”

Jin-Chul stepped out, feeling like there was definitely going to be a period of transition but that it would be for the best in the long run.

Jin-Woo felt like a weight had been lifted from his chest. The goal he’d nearly given up on, his mother waking up, had finally been accomplished. He sat on the couch, Jin-Chul putting his arm over his shoulder, listening to Jinnah as she spun stories, catching their mother up on everything that happened.

Just being able to see his mother smile again was a gift on its own, but he couldn’t shake the new burden that had been placed on him as the other was lifted.

He had already been trying to decide what was the fair way to use five instant cures of any disease. Perhaps to hunters? Maybe sell it to the highest bidder and use the money for good? But now that he knew that they also granted the user an ageless body? The stakes were much, much higher and nothing could be done carelessly.

His first instinct was to hoard them, to keep them to himself and his family. If he was to live forever, of course he would want his family and the man he loved to be with him for as long as possible. At the same time, who was he to decide who did and didn’t age? Why should he be the one with that kind of power? Why were the impossible decisions his to make?

He felt a slight nudge was pulled out of his thoughts, looking over at Jin-Chul.

“I don’t know what’s going through your head right now, but you can worry about it tomorrow. Today is just about reconnecting and celebrating that your mother is back, the rest can wait.”

Jin-Woo nodded and did his best to stay in the moment. They got a bunch of takeout since no one wanted to step away long enough to cook dinner. It took a bit, but after a couple of hours he finally started to relax, joining in on the story sharing, which his mom absorbed like a sponge.

He skipped over the darker parts of how they got there, but smiled as he shared the story of how he got Princess, Jin-Chul occasionally chipping in on drunk Jin-Woo creating and naming shadow wolves.

Eventually they cleaned up the table and his mother joined him as he did the dishes. They took up familiar places as she washed while he rinsed and dried. Nothing needed to be said, it didn’t matter how much had or hadn’t changed, those little moments would always be there. That muscle memory of helping his mom with the dishes wasn’t going anywhere.

After a minute of comfortable silence he noticed she had cleaned the same plate three times and was staring at the sink fairly intently. He was considering saying something when she spoke up, her voice sounding falsely casual.

“So… Uh, men?”

It took him a second to realize what she was asking. “I guess? Is that alright?”

“Of course, honey. There’s nothing wrong with it, he seems like a fine young man. It’s just a bit of a surprise, that’s all. And this is recent? I mean, did you have anyone before I fell asleep?”

He paused to turn and look at her. “Mom. Are you asking if I had a secret boyfriend in highschool?”

She held up her hands in surrender. “Look, I wouldn’t have thought so, but I never would have thought you would be interested in men in the first place and it made me wonder how much else I might have not noticed.”

He chuckled a little. “Don’t worry, you didn’t miss anything. This is a pretty new revelation for me too. So far it’s more like ‘Jin-Chul-sexual’ than anything else. Even then, the most we’ve done is kiss and hold hands. I don’t know what I am or if ‘gay’ is even the right word, but he’s definitely the person I want to figure it out with.”

He looked over again and saw her wide smile. “There’s a lot of confusing stuff happening, but It’s nice to see you so in love in spite of all of it.”

Jin-Woo wanted the record to show that he both did not and would not blush at such statements.

After they finished up in the kitchen he walked back into the living room and found the girls settling in for a movie.

“I expect lights to be out and you both to be in bed in an hour and a half, so unless you suddenly became okay with stopping a movie half-way, you’ll want to pick something shorter. Don’t give me that look, it’s a school night and you know the rules.”

Jinnah gave him an annoyed pout. “Are you serious? Mom just came home and most people are still getting back from the evacuations.”

He paused for a second. “You know what, that’s fair. You can have tomorrow to spend with mom. I’ll be at work for at least part of the day, since the country is a bit of a mess after everything that happened.”

Song-Yi started to cheer but received a look that shut her down. “Awww. No way. I still have to go? That’s messed up.”

“Well, you only have about a month left in high school to make sure you’re passing all your classes. What’s your grade in math right now?”

“Wow, that’s a really compelling point that we don’t need to discuss anymore.”

His mother looked a little uncomfortable so he looked over at her with a bit of confusion. “Everything good?”

“Oh, yes. Everything’s fine. I just… from what Jinnah was saying it’s only been a few days since the nation thought it would get wiped out by ants and your big fight with that Andre fellow. That’s a lot to go through, are you sure you don’t think you all shouldn’t take more time away from school and work?”

He was thinking of a response when Song-Yi was the one to speak up. “Nah, I give him shit about it, because who wants to go to school? But if we stopped doing stuff every time something insane or deeply upsetting happened, Jin-Woo should’ve just let me drop out. Like, it sucks, but it’s either powering through it or just giving up entirely.”

Jin-Woo patted her head and ruffled her hair. It was messy, chaotic, and downright confusing at times, but he wouldn’t give up his family for anything in the world.

Chapter Text

Time marched on, as it always did. The confusing and absurd become normal as they all adjusted to everything that had changed. It had been a bit over two weeks since his mom had woken up and things were falling back into their routines, between work and school.

Jin-Woo leaned forward over his desk as he looked over the reports he was given about the Jeju raid. It was looking more and more like the signal-jammer had been stopped intentionally in an attempt to kill nearly all of Korea’s hunters. It would have left Korea horribly dependent on their neighbors for anything Jin-Woo couldn’t do himself. 

Beyond being an attempted murder mixed with undermining their strength as a nation, it was unbelievably short sighted. The world knew that their war with magical beings would only continue to ramp up, and they’d risk killing the desperately needed S ranks just to have a leg up over their allies?

He was running the investigation with Jin-Chul’s surveillance department, using his shadows to try and find out exactly who was and wasn’t in on this. Though he did wonder what they would do once it was proved? He supposed that arresting those involved was a given, but anything further was something for the higher ups to decide once they knew more. Not to mention that seven of Japan’s hunters had died from their failed schemes and it felt hypocritical to do anything that would weaken them even more.

He groaned at the political mess and was almost relieved as his phone rang and pulled his focus. That relief vanished and Jin-Woo felt a spike of worry as he saw it was Jinnah’s teacher.

“Ms. Gwon-Ho? Is everything okay?”

“My apologies Mr. Sung, I didn’t mean to worry you. Both of your girls are fine, I was just calling to see if you could help us with something. A gate opened up at the school and we would greatly appreciate it if you could handle it again.”

His eyebrows raised is a surprise and slight concern. “Another one? That’s the second in barely a week.” The last one had nearly been a disaster. They only realized it was there because he’d had Igris on guard duty and after sensing the gate had escorted the two highschoolers out of the building until Jin-Woo showed up and found the problem. Luckily he’d gotten there before it broke, but it seemed like it was close and at least rank B if not the lower end of rank A.

“I won’t be able to step away from my work for the next few hours, but I’ll send a Shadow over to clear it, assuming it’s low rank.”

She gave him various thanks that he did his best to accept not-awkwardly. He sent off his fastest soldier, Beru, to deal with the dungeon while he continued to read reports and make recommendations for people to ‘shadow’ in their search for the culprit. He was about ready to submit his own report when he froze in place.

Through Beru’s eyes he saw a door he’d never forget. Beru pushed on the door but it didn’t budge no matter how hard he hit it. He eventually stepped back and took up a position to guard the area and watch the door, but Sung Jin-Woo’s mind was already elsewhere.

It wasn’t just some dungeon.

It wasn’t even a double dungeon.

It was the double dungeon.

He didn’t know how long he sat there, eyes unblinking as his breath picked up speed, but it was enough for his secretary to step in to ask him a question.

“Hey, I wanted to check- Sung? Are you alright? Are we in danger?”

He was about to ask what she meant when he realized that half a dozen shadows had taken up defensive positions in response to his panic. He took a deep breath and did his best to focus as he pulled his soldiers back into his shadow.

“Not here, but there is a threat.” He scribbled down the address for Jinnah and Song-Yi’s school. “I need you to tell Jang in communications to send an evacuation notice for this area immediately, radius of at least 10 miles. Once you’ve done that, call in all of our S ranks using the ‘Abnormal Gate’ procedures, with an estimated threat of S.”

Her eyes went wide at his words, but still noted what he’d said on her notepad so she could relay it word for word. Another S rank threat after so little time was nearly unheard of, but everyone had seen the gradual worsening of the attacks, so nothing could be taken for granted.

“What’s going on? Is it really that bad?”

He gave her a look that spoke of the horrors he’d seen behind that door, of the nightmares caused by that dungeon. There was nothing in that room except for death and destruction, and he would be damned if he let it escape.

She didn’t ask for any further clarification, taking his concern as evidence enough, simply nodding and making calls as she hurried out of the room. He got his armor on and started thinking about what would happen if those statues got loose, the devastation any of them could bring. Those thoughts continued and he’d started pacing the room when Go Gunhee walked into his office.

“Good, you’re here. We need to get a strike team together immediately and move out as soon as the evacuation is done.” He finally turned and looked at his boss, who was sitting on the couch in his office and giving Jin-Woo a sad look. “What? Why are you just sitting there, we need to get this organized.”

He gestured at the nearby chair. “Have a seat.”

“You know I love our chats, but we really don’t have time for this, I need to get the strike force together and ready to head out.”

He gave a deep sigh. “There’s no strike team, and there’s no evacuation. At least not right now.”

“Why.” Jin-Woo’s expression went cold as he moved in closer. Gunhee watched as his eyes began to radiate blue energy, just about everything radiating hostility. The room darkened from the expanding shadows, undead soldiers starting to rise up with laser focus on Gunhee, who remained perfectly calm.

“Look kid, I trust you about as far as I can throw you, which is pretty damn far! But I need you to think about my perspective. I have one of my best and most traumatized hunters calling for an evacuation of half the city and the mobilization of all our top hunters in response to a D rank gate that opened this morning.”

Jin-Woo was about to respond when Gunhee held up a placating hand. “However, I will take your word for it without question if you can do one thing for me. All you have to do is not look surprised when I tell you that you’ve had a knife in your hand for the last thirty seconds.”

His eyes immediately shot down to his hand, horrified to find that his boss was telling the truth. He dropped the red blade like it was on fire, glancing back up at Gunhee, who looked a little sad more than anything else.

“Have a seat, and we’ll talk this through.”

This time Jin-Woo listened and slowly sat down, his mind racing.

“Now, walk me through what’s going on.”

“I -I checked out the gate as a favor to the school, and I swear to you that it’s the same double dungeon. I know most things seem unbeatable as an E rank, but even now I’ve never seen anything with raw power like those statues. That altar is where I reawakened and Ashborne's soul was attached to mine. The Grand Nightmare mask said that whatever did that would have to be both powerful and in that room. The Rulers create and control the dungeons to make us strong enough to fight the Denizens, so I’m pretty sure there's a Ruler behind that door and I don’t know what they’re doing!”

He caught his breath as Gunhee gave a slow nod and thought over his rambled concerns.

“I see. I’m glad I stopped you then. If there truly is a Ruler nearby, this is our first real chance to communicate with them. We’ve been fighting with them for nearly a decade now and might finally be able to ask why they’ve been opening gates and attacking us.” The old hunter rose to his feet. “I do agree with you that we can’t trust this to act like a normal gate and we need to move as soon as possible. I’ll call the other Hunter Association leaders and we’ll have a decision on how to proceed within a few hours. South Korea can’t decide on world policies alone, but I won’t permit them to dally either.”

Jin-Woo just nodded as Gunhee pat him on the shoulder. “Shouldn’t I be in the meeting?”

“Not this time. Get some rest if you can, we’ll need you at your best. We’ll try to move sometime tomorrow.”

Jinnah gave her brother a worried look as he moved around the house like a rabbit. By that she meant he had been jumpy as hell and darted around the apartment as he stress cleaned. He’d been like that since coming home from work the day before, so she was guessing something happened there. Jin-Chul wasn’t much better, looking worried and a bit on edge while keeping a very close eye on his phone. She’d tried asking about it but both just told her that it was ‘classified’ and she wasn’t allowed to know about it.

She dropped herself on the couch between her mom and Song-Yi and sighed loudly, distracting them both from the show they were watching.

“Not to be dramatic, but I’m pretty sure the world is ending.”

Her mother looked at her for a few seconds. “Honey, could you maybe explain that a bit more, I think most would argue that it started to end about ten years ago.”

Song-Yi chuckled a bit, “Yeah, and how is that anything but the most dramatic thing you can say?”

“Well, there’s clearly something going on. Think about it, even when ants were about to eat all our faces, they still told us about all of it. So, it’s either sensitive info but not that bad because they’re not evacuating anyone, or it’s so bad that evacuating wouldn’t make a difference. I’m leaning towards the second one because of how our favorite gays are acting and some paparazzi caught the Brazilian national ranker arriving this morning. So whatever it is, it’s gotta impact most of the world.”

Song-Yi looked at her for a second before her eyes went a bit wide. “Wait, that actually makes sense. Plus there’s the weirdness with the gate outside our school! Everyone said it’s just a D rank and will get handled soon, but didn’t that teacher say she was going to ask Jin-Woo to deal with it sooner? And now today we stay home because of some issue with ‘the plumbing’. That’s definitely where it’s going down!”

“And you’ll keep it to yourself.”

They all spun around, seeing Jin-Chul standing behind the couch with his arms crossed.

“In the future, if you’re going to make guesses about state secrets could you do me the favor of getting more of it wrong so I don’t have to file paperwork about it?”

It took a few moments for his acknowledgement to set in. Her mom quietly spoke up. “How bad is it?”

“There’s a very real potential for things to go wrong, but it shouldn’t risk anyone outside the gate. The only reason we evacuated the school is that we don’t want hundreds of teenagers with cameras posting everything to the internet.”

Jinnah shrugged, “Can’t even fight you on that one. My generation would one hundred percent make memes about classified stuff.”

They chatted for a bit longer, the comfortable back and forth interrupted by the buzz of his phone. He looked down and went stiff, swearing under his breath. “Looks like they need us after all.”

With that, he got his new equipment on, his armor was the highest quality you could buy, runes glowing across the plate armor. “Technically it’s a diplomatic mission, but I’ve learned that it’s best to be prepared for things to be…” He strapped an oversized sword that emanated lightning to his back. “Less than peaceful.”

Chapter Text

Jin-Woo and Jin-Chul entered the D rank gate and joined the group of powerhouses waiting for them. Outside of the international conferences, there were rarely this many nation ranked hunters in a single place, and certainly not such powerful ones at that. They had four of the strongest ten on the planet and likely had the power to conquer continents.

There were nine in their party overall, with Chairmen Go as the leader. The requirements to be in the group were to be at least S rank (with a strong preference for Nation Ranked), able to speak on behalf of your country to some extent, and able to speak either Korean or English. Jin-Chul was a bit of an exception, where he was considered both A and Nation Ranked because of his part in clearing the Demon Tower, but no one else could do the job of keeping their strongest hunter steady as they ventured into his nightmares.

On the more diplomatic side of things, there was the Serbian Prime Minister, the leader of Egypt’s Magic Research Department, and a Canadian General. The three of them were the only S ranks in the group, not strong enough to stand alongside the Nation Ranked, but enough to not get immediately vaporized by proximity.

The first of their fighters was the Brazilian hunter, Ana Da Silva. She was considered around six or seventh strongest in the world, and a strong contestant for best melee fighter. She wore basically no armor, just enchanted leather that increased her already absurd strength. Ana used a studded ball about two feet across attached to a chain that was wrapped around her body. It weighed over a ton and was a clumsy weapon, but between her strength, skill, and ability to turn intangible, the ball and chain were closer to a force of nature than a weapon.

Next was Lennart Niermann, estimated to be around tenth strongest. He was a German man who could create constructs and projectiles out of energy, making him a solid range attacker and backline support. He didn’t carry any weapons with him, but wore heavy armor and a large shield, prioritizing defense over mobility, essentially turning himself into a turret with a bulky gauntlet that helped him channel energy blasts.

The last member was Andre himself. Now considered to be the second strongest person on the planet. Jin-Woo had had his doubts, but the behemoth of a man had kept his word and spent the last few weeks going from gate to gate, clearing S rank threats for free. The man was an absolute bastard, but he was a bastard that had finally started to defend the planet he lived on. As Jin-Woo approached, the American gave him a nod, an acknowledgement that Jin-Woo returned mostly because he wasn’t one hundred percent sure what it was communicating.

Many argued that their team was overkill to the extreme, but Jin-Woo wasn’t sure. From what little they’d gathered, it seemed that the Rulers in charge were stronger than the Monarchs, but it was close enough that they’d been in a stalemate for millennia, if not eons. That meant the only metric they had for how strong monarchs were was his fight with Baran.

And they needed an army to defeat him. While he was being puppeted. While he was in a coma. And they’d still nearly lost! So if a Ruler was stronger than Baran at full power, they wouldn’t be taking any chances.

Gunhee turned to Jin-Woo. “Good, you’re here. The doors can’t be pushed open and Ana can’t phase through them. The current theory is that you might be the only one able to open it.”

He nodded and walked up to the massive doors. He had to admit it sort of stung that he was plan B, rather than part of the team from the get-go, but he also couldn’t blame the Chairman for thinking he could be a liability. He was already tense and a few steps short of trembling in fear at the thought of being in the dungeon that started everything.

With barely any force at all, the doors swung open, confirming that whatever was inside was waiting for Jin-Woo specifically. They all moved forward into the unpleasantly familiar room as blue flames lit themselves along the wall behind the stone knights. No matter how much stronger he’d gotten, Jin-Chul standing next to him was about the only thing keeping him from making a run for it.

The moment all of them entered the room the door slammed shut, his panic cut off by Ana chuckling, speaking with a thick accent. “Ha! Classic murder dungeon.” Her grip tightened on the chain, “I can’t wait to find out who’s trapped in with who.”

The Canadian general, Sarah, put a hand on her shoulder. “At least let us try words first, ay?”

“Yes. I am so very curious about what you have to say to little ol’ me.”

They all quickly turned to face the winged statue holding a tablet. As the leader of the expedition Gunhee stepped forward. 

“I am Go Gunhee, the Chairman of the Korean Hunter’s Association. May I ask your name?”

The being put down the tablet and began morphing and stretching until nine hands reached out, each on an arm at least fifteen feet long. “I understand humans like shaking hands, yes?” Even though the being had a mouth, it didn’t move as they talked, so they were likely using some form of telepathy. After they all tentatively returned the gesture all of their limbs retracted and were replaced by a multitude of wings and faces, looking like some sort of biblically accurate angel.

“I’ve been called so many things .Soul Render, Mom, The Mad Surgeon, Bitch-That-Stole-My-Eyes-For-Experiments, Steve, The Traveler, some have even called me insane! But you can call me Architect. Why? Because I designed and built my own house and I think I deserve some recognition for that!” They gestured to the dungeon around them, which Jin-Woo doubted counted as a ‘house’.

While the rest of them felt deep concern over their chance to learn more being genuinely crazy, Gunhee didn’t miss a beat.

“Of course, Architect. It certainly is an impressive feat, this place is a work of art. One thing I’d like to confirm, you’re the one that placed a soul fragment inside of Jin-Woo?”

“Ah yes, some of my best work. Nothing like the sloppy work done on you two.” They gestured towards Gunhee and Andre. “Such high quality material used like that is such a waste. Those Ruler bastards have no respect for the art of soul binding.”

One of the Architect’s necks stretched out so they could get a better look at Jin-Woo. “Yeah, that’s integrating well. I knew it would be time to add the other fragments, probably could have done it sooner. Better late than early though! Get the altar ready for surgery!”

A few dozen stone bricks pushed out from the wall to reveal a multitude of drawers. A handful of the statues began to move around the massive room, collecting various items from glass jars to ornate staffs.

Jin-Woo had been quiet so far but had some concerns. “What are you planning on doing to me?”

The head spun a few times in corkscrew as it got unnecessarily close. “Right now you have a small piece of the Ashborn, slowly merging your two souls. A body can only handle so much, so it must be done slowly and with the correct vessel or there’s a big mess. And by ‘mess’ I mean a horrible death. Don’t worry about that though, it’s time to add a few other fragments.”

He wasn’t sure if he liked the sound of literally any of that. The soul merging, the potential death, or anything else that came with adding more soul fragments to his own.

“Could you explain exactly what would happen to me if I agree to this? Those sound like some serious risks?”

Architect paused for a moment before returning to a more normal humanoid form and laughing. “You humans are equally hilarious and stupid. There’s no ‘if’ here. I’m explaining the process because I like to talk, not because you have a choice in the matter. I made a deal with Ashborn to give him a vessel and a chance to kill Baran and in return he continues to kill the Rulers and doesn’t seek out the other Monarchs. I’ve done most of my part, and you can’t fulfill your end with only one piece of his soul.”

The room rang with the sounds of weapons being drawn and spells being prepared. No attacks were thrown yet, but everyone was ready to in response to the Architect’s words. Lennart said something back, and since it was in German Jin-Woo wasn’t sure exactly what, but it seemed like some sort of challenge or provocation. Whatever it was though, it didn’t seem to have the hoped for response, as the Architect began to laugh even harder.

“Why would I care about your ‘Free Will’? Allow me to explain the situation more clearly for you. I want the Rulers dead, you want to protect your home. So I’m going to make you as strong as possible so we both get what we want. If you don’t like my methods, I’ll kill everyone else in this room and do it by force.” They paused and pointed at Gunhee, “I’d keep you alive too, you have a fascinating soul. It’s easier to work together since we want the same thing, but that doesn’t mean you have a say in how I do things. I have lived for millenia and will not be told what to do by some silly primates.”

Sarah once again stepped forward in an attempt to broker peace. “Hey, hey, before we all start a fist fight with a being that can remove souls, let's take a second and talk this out and make a decision as a group.” She looked up at the Architect. “If that’s fine with you?”

The eldritch being shrugged seven sets of shoulders. “Time is dilated by a ratio of thirty to one compared to your universe, so you have about a month before I move the entrance so the Rulers can’t find this place.”

The nine of them moved into a loose circle as they worked to decide where they, both as  individuals and as representatives of their nations, stood with this being. Would they accept the risk in hopes for power and information, or was this just one more threat?

Jin-Woo could admit that he was stuck in his own head and wasn’t giving the discussion the attention it deserved. They were standing in front of the person that had murdered all the hunters that day and taken his leg. The person that gave him both strength and trauma beyond measure.

They were on the cusp of having a real chance at understanding what was going on, and all it took was playing these games like a good little puppet. How much of the blood and death were on the Architect’s hands, and how much were on the Rulers’? How much blood would be on his hands if he followed along and did what he was told? Could they trust anything they were told by this lunatic? Could they afford not to?

Jin-Woo looked up from the ground as Jin-Chul lightly jostled him. “We’ve come to the decision that it’s your choice. If you’re comfortable, then we’ll go through with it and get all that we can out of an alliance. If you’re not comfortable working with the person that tortured you, then we’ll fight our way out, no questions asked. You matter far more to Earth, and me, than the Architect ever will.”

The other hunters nodded in agreement, ready to fight on his behalf and completely unwilling to sacrifice him to guarantee their own safety. He thought about it for a bit longer and decided he would give the same to them. He wouldn’t risk their lives in a fight just so he could avoid danger of his own. Besides, it wasn’t an inherently bad deal, he just didn’t like the lack of choices being given.

“I’ll do it.” He looked over at the Architect, who was already grinning through a mouth on the side of their face. “What do you need me to do?”

“Good, good. Take off the magic items and lay down on the altar and let ol’ Achy handle the rest.”

He tried not to think or worry too hard as he removed the Nightmare skull and vine robes before going back to the very spot his arm got cut off. He saw the Architect walk over holding three staffs, all covered in golden runes. They were pushed through the air and left floating above him, making a triangle of sorts that hummed with energy.

“Now, you might feel a slight pinch in your soul and pass out, but that’s totally norm-

Chapter Text

Jin-Chul watched with a cold and stoic expression as the Architect worked on his lover. He didn’t know what the being was doing or even what he was looking for, but he refused to take his eyes off of it in case the Architect tried something. How would he know if something horrible was being done at that very moment? He felt like a guard dog who couldn’t tell who was a robber and who was a guest.

It took nearly an hour of unclear magic for the Architect to finish. Nothing looked off, but Jin-Chul really didn’t like how still he was.

“Alrighty primates, he’ll be out for a few of your Earth days, same as last time. The baby monarch got a much bigger fragment this time, so I’ll wanna keep an eye on him while he’s out.”

The Serbian Prime Minister turned to Gunhee, “Do we have the supplies for a multi-day expedition? We don’t need the blowback that would come from an unconscious Jin-Woo being brought from the gate, and beyond that we wouldn’t have the expertise to assist with any issue. So the question comes down to what’s feasible.”

Jin-Chul cut in. “We’ve made sure to always have enough supplies in Jin-Woo’s shadow to last a hundred people at least two years.” Seeing the looks of disbelief he clarified. “I understand that it seems excessive, but after running out of food even after over preparing by most standards we decided to be prepared for the most extreme circumstances going forward.”

Gunhee nodded in understanding. “In that case we will stay here and wait.” He looked over at the Architect. “You’ve commented on our ignorance a few times, would it be possible to learn more about the current situation and how we got here? Earth’s access to information has been pretty minimal so far.”

The Architect looked at him in curiosity. “I believe that can be arranged. In fact, I can do far more than that. I shall give you all the information you want and any resources to strengthen your team here. But! In return I want that soul you’re not using.”

“You want to make a deal for my soul?” Just about the entire team thought of a certain religious figure known for making deals for souls, worried that this creature could be the inspiration.

The currently serpentine statue waved it off dismissively with its constantly morphing body. “No, no. Why would I want that old thing? Human souls aren’t good for much, and I hate how they taste.”

Ana looked over in shock. “You eat souls?!”

“Of course not, why would I eat them if I don’t like the taste? Anyways, I want the piece of the Absolute Creator that they crudely stapled to your soul. Give me that and I will happily reveal the secrets of the universe to you.”

Gunhee stared ahead with a pained expression, deciding to ignore the potential soul-eating and focus on his own moral dilemma. He knew what the right answer was, they were so desperate to know what was going on. Who were they truly fighting? Why were they fighting? What were these ‘Rulers’ and how did they operate? Was there a weakness they could exploit?

But at the same time, how could he give up his ability to fight? There was nothing he loved more than the thrill of the battle. A love he substituted by leading instead of fighting directly. Would he even be allowed to be the Chairman if he was a regular person again? Should he be allowed to remain in power though if he said no and squandered their chances?

With a heavy heart he nodded. “Very well, I accept your deal.”

With a grin that literally went from ear to ear, they handed Jin-Woo to Jin-Chul and led Gunhee over to the altar.

“This will be a much easier procedure, you may ask your questions while I work.”

Gunhee nodded, doing his best to not sink into the feeling of helplessness. “How many Rulers are there and what exactly are they?”

“Well, the first one is easy but also hard. There’s not a clear number since most mind their business and have scattered across the multiverse. But, for your purposes, there are seven of the bastards. For the ‘what’, you will need a bit of backstory.”

As the summon that responded to Jin-Chul the best, he had the Princess bring various supplies in and out of the shadows. Princess popped out with a bedroll that he unrolled before gently placing Jin-Woo on it while still listening to the statue’s explanations.

“Our story starts at the beginning of time in the space between universes. As you probably noticed, there’s more realities than just this one. A lot more. Technically not an infinite amount, but explaining the intricacies of multiversal expansion and contraction isn’t what you need to know. Between each universe is a realm of energy that exists outside of what you consider the laws of physics and nature. Sort of like a wall or membrane that keeps all the realities contained. This place was initially called the ‘Endless Expanse’ by the Denizens that discovered it, now it’s mostly just called ‘End’ or ‘Expanse’ for short.

“Over lots and lots of time and with a very skilled guiding hand, the energy that makes up the  Expanse can solidify into sentient beings of pure energy and magic called ‘Rulers’. But they’re not living in the way animals are, they don’t reproduce, age, evolve, get sick, none of that. They are closer to carefully crafted constructs made by the Absolute Creator. Whether the Absolute Creator is an actual god that was born with the universe, or just a Ruler that managed to form naturally, is a big religious debate that lots have fought or killed over. I personally lean towards him being a god that created himself.”

The Egyptian Researcher was rapidly taking notes along with the Serbian Prime Minister and looked up for a moment, raising his hand with a question. “Um, not to interrupt, but is this ‘Absolute Creator’ the same god that was killed fairly recently and caused the increase of hostilities?”

“Haha! Yes, that’s one way to put it. The Absolute Creator was cut down on his throne and his soul split into hundreds of pieces.” The Architect gestured at Gunhee. “One of which is soon to be mine.” Then towards Andre, “While another has found its place with that one. You can hold onto it for now, but I’ll want it once you’re done with it.” 

The Architect’s head split open and a new one popped out with a wild grin. “But that’s skipping ahead in the story! The Rulers just existed on their own for a while, between a million and billion years depending on where you are. Time is super inconsistent across universes and in the Expanse. That’s just some general advice on talking with Denizens and Rulers, no one talks about how long ago things were, but what happened around then.”

The researcher, Ahmed, continued to do his best in noting down everything said in the wandering ramble.

“Anyways, there’s a bunch of Rulers, some say even as many as a hundred. Then, for the first time, a magical being figures out how to access the Expanse. Led by none other than General Agios and in that army was Legia, future Monarch of the giants.” They chuckled to themselves. “I wish I could have seen the looks on their faces. Spending an eternity in the deep end of pure energy, and then Wham! People with mass and matter start showing up, and bringing all this corporeal stuff with them.

“There was lots of political intrigue and stuff with two drastically different life forms meeting for the first time. A few other worlds naturally figured out how to enter the Expanse, notably dragons and elves. Time passed and they built entire cities out there, because as long as they were in the Expanse, they had access to near limitless magic. That was when things started to get… dicey, let’s say. The Rulers felt that they had power over anything and everything in the Expanse, and while they were sort of okay with visitors, they weren’t so happy when people started claiming certain parts of it and drawing borders.”

The Architect lifted up a seemingly empty ornate jar and looked quite proud of themself. They walked across the room and opened the jar in front of the massive statue, doing some sort of ritual. After walking back over they shooed Gunhee off of the Altar and gestured for Jin-Chul. “Your turn.”

That was certainly not expected. “Me?”

“Yes, you. Love-husband to the baby Monarch. Come over here so I can add to your soul, the last thing we need is you dying because you tried to stand by your love-husband. The Ashborn is very unpleasant and murdery when his lovers die.”

He would definitely need to ask Jin-Woo about what love-husbands were and why he was considered one, but there were more pressing matters. “What are you planning to add to my soul? Will I go unconscious as well?”

“I’ll add the soul of a storm elf, it’ll go well with your stealth and electricity, plus it should give you the resistance needed to use your sword without exploding. No, unless you’re weaker than I think you are. I’m adding a storm elf not three quarters of a demi-god. Now, do you have any more silly questions or complaints about having freewill?”

Jin-Chul didn’t love the idea of being potentially incapacitated at the same time as Jin-Woo but did his best to roll with it and nodded as he moved over to the altar.

The Architect came over with another ornate jar, he still couldn’t see anything inside, but when it was opened he could smell the ozone like there was a storm coming. “Good, good. Now, this used to belong to a high mage, so if you find yourself craving drugs or books, that’s totally normal. Where was I again?”

Ahmed spoke up tentatively, “You were explaining the territorial dispute within the Expanse.”

Twelve arms were sprouted as they worked several tools of unknown purpose, three were just juggling, which didn’t seem related to the process. “Right! Everyone was getting in a tizzy about who had authority and ownership over what parts of the Expanse. Then the Absolute Creator,” They gestured toward the massive statue sitting on a throne, the same statue they’d added a piece of the god to. “decided to solve the problem himself.

“Something all rulers can do is create physical matter out of energy, creating super mana-dense matter called R-materials. The best magical items in existence are either R-material or made from Rulers’ corpses. But they’d never done that before, since Rulers had never even seen matter until the Giants showed up. Then, both as a solution and show of force, the Absolute Creator creates an entire planet of this stuff. He then declared that all were welcome to live there and would be treated with respect, but they must acknowledge his authority over the Expanse.

“Massive numbers of people, especially the giants, moved there and basically started a new society under the watchful eye of their new rulers, which is how they got their name. And it was a flourishing society where endless magic let the population bloom into the billions. But there was a problem no one expected, plants grown in R-soil are very mana rich, and those mana rich plants tend to gain sentience after a hundred or so generations. Making matters go from terrible to catastrophic, the Rulers had no concept of hunger or death beyond the fact that it was something that people made of matter did. They didn’t understand the significance when the people they ruled over began to starve, so they did nothing but watch and enforce order when they acted out.

“The entire planet descended into chaos and bloodshed, and many came to believe that this was done purposefully, though history shows that it was almost certainly negligence rather than a malicious plan. But the truth didn’t matter, the dying planet rose up against the Rulers and taught them why death was something to fear. Of the roughly fifty that entered, thirty seven were killed, Legia himself could claim eleven of those kills. The planet was plunged into chaos and the survivors escaped to nearby realities, losing over half of the population to famine and war.

“The next discovery that shook everything up was that Rulers can enter parts of a reality that are infused with enough magic. And that matters a lot because when the Denizens of Chaos stay somewhere for too long it picks up enough ambient magic to make that happen. That usually takes anywhere from a few decades to a century, so Denizens have to keep moving between realities.

“Does that answer your question on why the Denizens of Chaos are nomadic? Oh, and I finished adding to your soul five minutes ago. I've been tattooing your back to look like your love-husband’s, so now you have identical back freckles because I got a bit bored.”

Ahmed raised a nervous hand again. “The question had been on what Rulers are, but you covered that-”

“Ah! Of course, but to answer that you’ll need a bit of backstory.”

Chapter Text

The team had set up ‘camp’ for the night, which was mostly just bedrolls and a camp stove where Jin-Chul cooked up some rice and beans for everyone. Jin-Woo still slept soundly, but seemed healthy otherwise. If nothing else, Jin-Chul had learned in the Demon Tower how to do chores like cooking even when danger was perpetually nearby. Remaining calm and doing household tasks regardless of adrenaline pumping through your heart could be difficult, as shown by the fidgeting hunters around him. He was finishing up dinner when the Architect spoke up from uncomfortably close behind him.

“Did I remember to mention the War Gods?”

Jin-Chul jumped into the air and spun around. “Fuck! Why are you like this? Ugh, no, you didn’t mention any ‘war gods’. I’m assuming it’s incredibly vital information that you decided to skip for no clear reason?” He could admit his temper was getting a bit short with the lunatic after spending all day listening to their insane rambling.

“Well, you see, after the devastating loss the Rulers realized just how unprepared for war they were. Many scattered across the Expanse, others went back into battle for revenge, but at the end of the day, they weren’t designed for battle. They were the Absolute Creator’s cherished creations, his children even. The Absolute Creator couldn’t stand to watch his children die like that, so he made new Rulers, and these ones were made to fight.”

The entire camp had paused what they were doing and gave the Architect their full attention.

“The Absolute Creator made ten, all of them stronger, faster, better armed, and more capable of adapting than the ones they replaced. It is said that the Absolute Creator gave them two weapons that made them more dangerous than all the others combined. He gave them anger and fear. The anger had them chasing the Denizen’s across the Expanse with an insatiable bloodlust, and unending need for violence and death. But it was the fear that truly made them dangerous. They rarely attacked head on, using ambushes and manipulation instead. We rarely even see the Rulers themselves, instead fighting proxies and puppets as the timeless bastards try to wear us down. These ten Rulers are what the Denizen’s have been fighting except for that first mess that started everything.”

Sarah, the General, spoke up when there seemed to be a gap in the Architect’s flow of words. “What happened to the original Rulers? Are they involved on either side of the current conflicts?”

“Nah, they’ve all fucked off and aren’t interested in what corporeal people are up to. The ones that cared and stuck around to fight got very dead when they couldn’t keep up with their more murdery siblings.”

Ana looked at the Architect with a focused glare. “How did they go from ten to seven? If they have been killed before they can be killed again.”

“You’re correct that they died, the ‘again’ is a bit tougher though. The first died to pride, the second to kindness, and the third to honor. They learned from these mistakes and the remaining seven have made sure to avoid each as much as possible.” They stared at Ana for a moment before walking over to the wall of hidden drawers and pulling out a length of chain that they then threw at her. “I like the killer in your eyes, have a present. It’s a near indestructible chain that changes length at will. Technically it was built to be a belt back when chain belts were in fashion, but it’s better than anything this planet has for magic chains.”

Ana looked it over in confusion and intrigue as the Architect continued.

“The first death was an attempted ambush gone wrong. She wielded unrivalled flames and had bested entire armies at speeds that were near impossible to follow. She thought herself unkillable after too many victories went to her head. Because of that, she frequently went on her own to destroy various settlements or trade routes. But she had grown predictable and hadn’t considered the danger around her. As she went to burn down an isolated outpost she ended up being the ambushed instead of the ambusher as Legia, Antares, Grand Nightmare, and many others came together to strike her down.

“Now without great cost though. Grand Nightmare fell that day, your own Monarch wearing her skull and gaining her wisdom. Legia too was badly injured, his role from that point on shifting from front line soldier to experienced general. Antares grew to be recognized as the strongest of the Denizen’s, the only being strong enough to take her attacks head on without dodging or dying. The Rulers learned from this though and stopped entering battles themselves whenever possible, and if they needed to it would be in groups of three or four at a time.”

 Jin-Chul could guess that they were in for a long ramble and he could see that the researcher and politician were taking notes, so he went back to making dinner. He got a couple wide eyed looks as he served himself a bowl and began eating while they received world altering information. It might be petty, but he refused to deal with the Architect’s insanity on an empty stomach.

“The second wasn’t nearly as talented in direct combat but was instead a master of making complex R-material. They created various weapons and would strengthen the bodies of anyone who fought for them, but their true passion was in creating new forms of life. It was usually mindless beasts, but after extensive trial and error they succeeded in making something based on the Rulers themselves. They were pseudo-rulers, not nearly as powerful as the ones made by the Absolute Creator, but what they lacked in quality they made up for in quantity.

“These creatures asexually reproduced, slowly compared to Denizens or animals, but doing so at all was a major advantage. However, they were designed as a mix between beings of pure energy and creatures with matter, so they can’t exist solely in either the Expanse or a reality and need to have some sort of vessel while in magically insufficient universes. Think of them like frogs, needing both water and land.”

The Architect gave a dramatic bow. “To be more specific, we are known as Demonic Specters, or Specters for short. And the kindness that killed our creator was giving us free-will and letting us grow as a people without outside intervention. However, when we realized that we were little more than pawns in an endless war we rose up and struck them down. Sadly, it was before my time and I wasn’t there for that grand battle. With the death of our maker, our people scattered in fear of retribution, most of us finding our way to the very people we were built to destroy. And of course, the Rulers learned from that mistake as well and make sure to take or break the wills of anyone who fights for them.”

Gunhee nodded slowly in understanding. “That would explain why they attack with people brainwashed with essense stones rather than sending their own soldiers. It provides both the benefit of complete control over their forces while also manipulating us into doing their bidding without knowing enough to even consider attacking the Rulers. Rogue ‘gods’ using guerilla tactics are an alarming enemy no matter how you consider it.”

Architect responded by turning their head into a bell. “Ding ding ding, we have a winner! They are in fact very hard to fight! From that point until fairly recently the two sides fell into a stalemate for a large portion of our recorded history. Some big battles, lots and lots of skirmishes. Technically, the Denizens lose far more often than they win, but they have the very clear advantage of being able to reproduce while the Rulers are at a pretty set number. The addition of the ten being the exception not the rule since no new Rulers have been made since those ten.”

Ahmed finished copying down the words and looked up. “I’m assuming the stalemate was broken by the Monarchs managing to kill the Absolute Creator?”

“Not at all, but also yes!”

“Huh?”

“Well, you see, it was caused by the Absolute Creator dying, but the Monarchs had nothing to do with it. Sure, they took credit for it, but that was just for boosting morale. Seven of the eight Rulers came together and betrayed their god, striking him down on his throne. They wanted to be strong enough to kill all their enemies but the Absolute Creator had denied them anything more than what they had, so they killed god and turned him into weapons. They had been monstrous before, but that was when they became known as the War Gods, leaving entire planets destroyed in their wake.

“But! That wasn’t the only major change. The eighth ruler died that day, fighting for honor and loyalty to his god. Things get complicated though when you kill a master of soul manipulation. He managed to bring himself back, fusing his soul with his shadow. When he woke up, the palace was broken and battered from the aftermath of their battle. To his horror, all he could find left of his god were ashes. In the face of that atrocity, he took on the name Ashborn and swore to claim vengeance against the heretics. Him joining the Monarchs was probably the only thing that prevented an all out extinction against the War Gods.”

Jin-Chul looked over at his sleeping lover, trying to reconcile the idea of some ancient god-like vengeful spirit living in the man’s soul. Did they have a chance to exit this cycle of violence, or would their world just be another place sacrificed to this endless war. They had already given so much to this fight only to find out that they’d never faced more than fodder. The true enemy that was bearing down on them were considered wrathful gods, and it seemed that the title was deserved. What more could they give if what they had wasn’t enough? Was there a way to get the Monarchs to leave Earth alone and make this entire thing someone else’s problem? Was it wrong to survive by simply passing this destruction onto another planet?

Gunhee pulled his attention back by nudging him while the Architect answered a question Jin-Chul hadn’t heard.

“The Rulers are here for a simple reason, to deliver the finishing blow to the Monarchs and their Denizens. The Denizens have suffered serious defeats and have lost all major locations, like the Tower of a Hundred Cities, which you saw the aftermath of. The entire populace is on the run, and because of some interdimensional geography, they are being funneled through this cluster of universes. For why they are coming here specifically, it’s even simpler than the Rulers. They’ve been running for a long time and they had to leave all their farms and hunting grounds behind. They are all hungry, and Earth looks like a big picnic basket.”

Chapter Text

In the week following the double dungeon, the world was in chaos, but it was a quiet kind of chaos. The public didn’t know what was happening, but they knew something was happening. World leaders were having closed door meetings and anyone vaguely important to Earth’s defense was basically unreachable with how busy they were. Governments were stockpiling food, weapons, and mana-infused material at unprecedented rates, which was never a good sign. Everything pointed to a ramping up in the war, something that could only lead to more death and destruction. In the face of that, smaller issues were, and had to be, discarded.

Jin-Woo looked at Song-Yi with a mix of confusion and humor. “Let me make sure I’m understanding the gist of this. The world is ending and because of that we shouldn’t worry about whether or not you graduate? Where are you even getting this information? Reddit?”

“Tiktok, actually. But the point stands.”

“It really doesn’t. I know I’ve been out of the office for a few days to recover, but I think someone would have mentioned if the world was in chaos. Are your grades really that bad? I thought you were making good progress?”

Song-Yi gave them a mumbled response that was barely audible.

Jin-Woo still heard her though, his enhanced senses from being a hunter enough to catch even the most ashamed teenager muttering. “You haven’t even looked at them yet? And what’s that? You want to open that report card right now so we can see if she passed high school? I totally agree.”

“I didn’t say that!”

He telekinetically pulled the letter over into his hand. “Are you sure? I’m pretty sure you did? Anyways, come over here so we can look at it together.”

She pouted and grumbled but eventually came and sat next to him as he opened the letter, glaring at least a little bit. They both held their breath a bit as they read the final report card, Song-Yi jumping for joy.

“Woo! D’s get degrees!”

Jin-Woo stood up with her, slipping a little but catching himself as the prosthetic leg caught on the carpet. He ignored the minor blunder and pulled her into a tight hug. “I knew you could do it!”

Her grades had been bad by the time he’d gotten her to change mind on dropping out and it had taken real work to get it back up to where it needed to be. It felt weird sometimes to cheer one of them on for getting D’s with the same enthusiasm as when the other got A’s, but he did his best to get excited based on how much effort it took.

Jinnah came out of her room, jumping and shouting with them. “Wooo! Why are we yelling!?”

Song-Yi pulled her into the group hug with a big smile. “I’m good to graduate!”

“Fuck yeah! We should yell even more!!!”

Jin-Woo just smiled and accepted that he’d have to apologize to the neighbors tomorrow.

His mom walked over as well, giving a gentle smile as the screaming girls. She seemed content to watch the touching moment but Song-Yi didn’t stand for that and pulled her into a group hug. “Get in here! We’re celebrating me being not-a-dumbass enough to get a piece of paper!”

Kyung-Hye frowned a little. “You shouldn’t talk about yourself like that, you’re an amazing young woman.”

“Of course I’m amazing, doesn’t change that I’m an idiot.”

His mom was about to respond when Jin-Woo cut in, ruffling Song-Yi’s hair. “The deflecting compliments and self-deprecation is a work in progress, for now I’ll accept the not-a-dumbass as long as she knows that we don’t think that. Now, enough about that, what do you want for dinner, graduate?”

“Oooh, we should get an ungodly amount of sushi from that nice place we went once. It’s so tasty but the portions are so small.”

Jinnah immediately agreed and threw her hands in the air in excitement. “And make sure to get extra caviar, that way I can finally eat caviar like a fancy rich person!”

“Can you have them deliver it?” Jinnah nodded along, clearly agreeing with the idea.

He laughed as they looked so proud of themselves. “So, you want to get ‘ungodly’ portions of sushi from one of the fanciest restaurants in the area and then have them deliver it here, something they don’t do, so we don’t have to eat fancy food in a nice restaurant?”

Song-Yi gave him a big smile, encouraged by Jinnah’s thumbs up. “It’s genius, right?”

“Alright, I try not to throw money around and have you two grow up normally, but for tonight we can do silly rich person things.”
As he stepped out of the room and made the call he heard Jin-Chul get home from work, the kids greeting him loudly and explaining why they were celebrating.

The night was spent laughing and joking as Jinnah did her best to sound as pompous and rich as possible, speaking with a terrible british accent. It was nice to ignore all the nonsense and insanity for a bit. To just enjoy time with his family and be a bit silly.

As they finished up dinner and put away the copious left-overs, Jin-Woo gave Song-Yi a smile and nudged her. “It’s a good thing that you passed because I already got your graduation present, and it would have been a very awkward one to return.”

Jinnah snickered, clearly in on the joke. “Don’t give me that look girl. I normally don’t keep secrets but he needed to run the idea by me first and I wasn’t going to ruin the surprise.”

“Well??? What is it? Or are you going to hint at it and not tell me?”

“It’s in a bit of a weird format but I think you’ll still appreciate it.” He telekinetically pulled his computer over and opened his work email. “Here’s a memo you’ll want to read.”

She stared at him like he was a crazy person. Why would her graduation present be a work memo? She was going to question it more but Jinnah looked like she might explode if Song-Yi delayed any further. She started reading it and it honestly seemed like a totally normal letter between departments. Gunhee was giving Special Projects, Jin-Woo’s department, permission to move forward with teaching the rescued Denizen’s about Earth culture.

There was a second paragraph that went into a more specific ‘mission’ where a civilian would show the demon ambassador common places such as restaurants and shopping malls. It took until she saw her own name as the approved civilian to realize what was going on.

“Wait… is this a date with the demon princess?”

Jin-Chul nodded. “Her name is Esil, but yes. You’d mentioned her quite a few times so we decided to make it happen.”

“Whoa, whoa. That was just talk. I’m not princess material! Does she even know that I’m just some regular lady? I’ll look like a total gold digger.”

Jin-Woo scratched the back of his head awkwardly. “Look, I didn’t really want to bring attention to it since it’s weird to think about, but you’re of a higher social standing than her in their society. She’s a princess because her father is king of a small city-state. You’re the adopted daughter of the Monarch her father is sworn to along with technically the rest of Earth. If anything, the concern I’d have is her trying to use you for influence, rather than the other way around.”

“Slow down one second. Are you saying I have a legitimate chance with a random fantasy I told you guys about as a funny way to come out?”

“Yeah, that’s about right. She’s looking to meet her Earth counterpart and experience some local stuff. Her Korean is very limited but she’s been focusing on learning as much as she can in the last month, so there might be a lot of charades. The last thing I want to make sure you know is that they have a very different view of romance, so even something like kissing is basically a proposal.”

Jin-Chul cut in. “To be clear though, there’s no issue if you turned this down for whatever reason. We don’t want you to feel pressured, it’s-”
“Imma stop you right there. I’m surprised, not upset. How do I put this in a not super gay way? That is a very good present, I’m very interested, I’m very embarrassed and will not be explaining my feelings further.” She stood still for a second before turning towards Jinnah. “What am I going to wear?!”

“Don’t worry girl, I have some ideas. You’re gonna knock her magical socks off.”

Jin-Woo just smiled as his girls ran off, always happy to see them full of excitement. Jin-Chul leaned over and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. “I’m going to go get changed out of work clothes and take a shower.”

With Jin-Chul leaning it was now just him and his mother on the couch. He was rapidly realizing that he hadn’t run his gift idea by his mom, who had some very reasonable reservations on their new demon friends. He stood by his idea but was also preparing to get a stern talking to for setting Song-Yi up with a demon girl.

Things were quiet for a bit and as it started to verge on awkward silence she turned to face him.

He had started to brace himself when she spoke. “I’m so proud of you.”

His head snapped to the side as he recovered from the emotional whiplash and gave a very intelligent response of “Huh?”

“I’ve told you that I’m sorry, that I wish you’d never had to carry these burdens, but that doesn’t really change anything, does it? What matters is that when you got handed an unfair task and you did it anyway. Not only that, but you did it well. No one can reasonably expect a grieving nineteen year old to be a good parent, to raise the only family he has left. But you did. You did an amazing job.

“Every time I get to see my little girl smile is a gift that you’ve given me twice over, not only by waking me up but by raising a girl that smiles so freely. You’ve been raising not one, but two teenagers, and in spite of everything in the world and all they’ve lost, they are happy, healthy, and loved.” She placed a gentle hand on the side of his face. “I couldn’t ask for a better son, I am so thankful and proud.”

As a few silent tears ran down his face he felt like a massive weight had been lifted from his chest for the first time in five years. He didn’t realize just how desperate he’d been to hear those words. That he’d done a good job, that all his sacrifices were worth it. That he’d given his best, and his best was enough.

She wrapped him in a hug and kept talking. “Even if you’re all grown up now, you’re still my little boy. I’m sorry you had to grow up so fast, I’m sorry you had to take up this role, but you’ve become an amazing brother and father. Don’t tell Song-Yi, but I’ve heard her slip a few times and refer to you as ‘dad’. I’ll say it over and over until you never doubt it again, I’m so proud of you and the man you’ve become.”

He just held onto her, his words nearly a whisper. “Thank you. I love you mom.”

“I love you too, kiddo.”

Jinnah came barreling into the room holding two shirts. “Where’s Jin-Chul? I need a fashionable gay man to prove me right about the green looking better- Whoa, there’s a lot more feelings in this room than I expected. I can’t tell if I should be giving privacy or joining the hug.”

He wiped his face and smiled at her. “Get in here you little brat.”

“Hell yeah.” She turned back briefly and shouted. “Song-Yi, get your as- I mean, butt, out here! We’re having more feelings time!”

Chapter Text

Jinnah had a huge grin as she sat facing Esil with an array of brushes, powders, and sponges.

“Okay, it’ll take a bunch of layers to cover up the gray tones if we want it to be super close to your natural look. But we can make it work way easier by going a few shades darker. It’ll still take a bit since we need to do your face, neck, and ears. We’ll handle the pointed ears with the power of a cute beanie. Between the beanie, the eyes, and the hair, you’ll look like a hipster instead of an elf or demon. Sounds good, right?”

Esil looked at her with a total lack of understanding but gave her an enthusiastic thumbs up anyways. If nothing else the princess was a very expressive person. Luckily, she had already gotten human clothes by living on Earth the last month, rocking a plain t-shirt and jeans with the military having done their best to clothe the demons Jin-Woo brought back.

She started by wiping her face down, a bit surprised as the lines under her eyes came off. “Huh, I don’t know why I just assumed that was part of your face instead of killer eyeliner. Also, your skin is freakishly smooth for living in hell your whole life. Once we teach you Korean I need to know your skincare routine. Maybe not though, I feel like you exfoliate with lava or something.”

She got another thumbs up as she got to scrubbing and then making her skin look more human. A few minutes passed, Jin-Woo looking on in amusement as Jinnah gave her ‘contours that could kill a man’.

Once she finished, Jinnah brought out a mirror to show off her work. She turned her face back and forth, getting a good look at herself with the new skintone and makeup style. Esil spoke with a thick accent, her native language having far fewer consonants and hard sounds, instead based around hissing and whistling sounds. “Weir, bu thot.”

This time Jinnah gave the thumbs up. “Not sure if you’re calling yourself hot or a thot, but either way I approve. Time to go show you off to my honorary sister. Oh, before I forget, here’s some gloves, that way you don’t need to worry about makeup on your hands.”

It took a little bit of charades, but her gloves and hat got put on successfully completing her look as ‘Esil the Human’.

Jinnah went ahead and grabbed Song-Yi, dragging her into the living room. Song-Yi was in a green crop top and leather jacket, with Jinnah looking proud of the outfit and Esil’s slight blush.

Jin-Woo smiled at the two teenagers, well Esil was 60 but the demon equivalent to a teenager. It was weird to think about the logistics for species that aged at different rates, so he did his best not to worry about it.

“Alright, I expect you to be back by eight. Text me if you plan on going somewhere other than the mall-”

“And don’t end up in jail or the newspaper, I know. It’ll be fine. I’ll be totally responsible and stuff.”

He gave her a nod, doing his best to pretend he had total faith in her decision making. He then turned to Esil and spoke to her in demonic whistling. “Have her back by eight. Make sure to remember that most humans are a lot more fragile and that fighting is illegal, even if someone is rude. I know you’re not familiar with most of the language yet, so if you're too confused about something you can always call me or Metus to help out. Now, go and have some fun.“

“Of course! I will make sure to respect both your laws and Earth’s princess!”

He chatted with them a little more as he drove them to the mall and dropped them off. “Have fun kids, don’t do anything I wouldn’t do. Make sure to use protect-”

Song-Yi slammed the door as he smirked at her, not risking being embarrassed by one of the few people that could say embarrassing things that Esil would understand.

She was about to walk in when she saw the look of wonder on Esil’s face. She paused and looked around for what had caught her attention, finding Esil’s eyes locked on the large glowing letters outside one of the entrances.

“Huh, guess you wouldn’t have seen those before living in a castle? It’s called a sign .” She emphasized the word while pointing at the flickering sign. If nothing else it made her wonder what mundane things from Esil’s home would blow her mind.

The demon girl apparently disagreed, shaking her head and pointing at seemingly the same spot.

“Not the sign?”

“No Sigh.” She looked around and pointed at a tree nearby.

Song-Yi looked at the tree then the sign, trying to figure out how they related. “Uh, they’re both green? Both in the parking lot? Both have birds on them?”

Esil jumped up and down in excitement, floating a foot off the ground. “Es! Bird!”

“You’ve never seen birds before?”

She shook her head. “No Birds.” She mimed a bird flying with one hand and then had it land on her other other hand before bursting into flame. “No Birds, yes fire.”

“Yeah, I guess that makes sense. Do you want to look at more birds?”

Esil seemed to smile with her entire body, which included bobbing around in the air.

Song-Yi laughed and smiled with her as she took Esil’s hand and pulled the floating princess along. She’d spent too long making plans about their date and now was joyfully throwing it away so they could run around the parking lot looking at pigeons like a couple of weirdos.

It was over an hour later when Esil decided that looking wasn’t good enough and grabbed a pigeon. Over the course of their shenanigans she’d gotten a bag of chips and the bird seemed happy enough with that trade off of food in exchange for being manhandled.

The princess fed the bird another chip and then pointed at it before giving the whistling chirp of her language. Seeing Song-Yi’s confusion she tried again. She pointed at herself, “Esil”, then her, “Song”, then the pigeon again, “Sliweesho.”

Song-Yi gave her best attempt at mimicking the name, definitely not blushing at the smile she got in return. “What does the name mean?”

Looking very pleased with herself, she pointed at the sky and then mimed getting her throat slit. “Sy iller!”

“You named the random parking lot pigeon ‘Sky Killer’? That’s amazing.”

After another ten or twenty minutes, and a fair bit of charades from Song-Ii, Sky Killer was eventually released and they went into the food court for a late lunch. Esil happily wandered around with wonder filled eyes until she eventually nudged Song-Yi, looking excited but a bit overwhelmed.

“No worries, I can pick for us. Wait right here and I’ll be back.” It took a bit more gesturing, but after getting her seated at a booth she figured it out and stayed there while Song-Yi went to order some pizza. For convenience sake she just got a few pre-made slices, and that way Esil could try a few different types.

Once she got back, Esil gave her a big smile, half of a chopstick sticking out of her mouth. At first Song-Yi thought she’d just been playing around with it or something, but quickly realized that there were bites taken out of the bamboo stick and the other chopstick was nowhere to be seen.

“Esil, did you eat the chopsticks?”

The girl perked up at her name and gave a thumbs up.

“Alright well, I’m not sure what to do about this and I guess you’re fine. How about you try pizza instead, I think that will be much tastier.”

She slid the food over and after a small testing bite she dropped the bite covered bamboo in favor of actual food. In just a couple bites she devoured the slice and gave a big smile. After receiving a bunch of cheerful (and totally not adorable) chirps, Song-Yi gave a thumbs up back and guessed based on context. “Right? It’s delicious. Good to know that pizza is demon approved.”

They sat there for a bit longer, Song-Yi feeling a bit bold and holding her hand after they’d finished eating. Esil had looked a little surprised at first but after thinking something over for a second gave a nod and a smile.

Song-Yi wasn’t fully sure what was going on so just smiled with her. Esil asked her something, looking a little embarrassed. She wasn’t really sure what it was about though so did her best to guess. “Are you still hungry? I’m not sure how much demons eat but we can get as much as you want.”

She was rapidly proved wrong as Esil leaned in and kissed her. Her mind went blank in the face of clumsy hot lips on hers. It took a few seconds for her to remember Jin-Woo’s warning words and yanked back. Esil was really nice and fun to be with but didn’t want this to be considered marriage or however things worked for magical elvish looking demon princesses.

Said demon princess looked concerned and confused as Song-Yi’s sudden words and asked something.

“Uh, I don’t know what you’re saying but I’m also very confused at what’s happening right now. Either we’re missing something about your culture or you move really fast.”

They went back and forth, just confusing each other further, not able to rely on context and gestures like they had the rest of the day. Eventually Esil got tired of this and pulled out her government issued phone and called someone. Song-Yi watched, baffled, as Esil rapidly chirped, hissed, and whistled into the phone before handing it to Song-Yi.

“Hello?”

“Hello, Han Song-Yi. Princess Esil Radiru has requested I assist with communication.” Metus sighed deeply, clearly unimpressed with everything happening and remaining aggressively formal. “She wants to know why you freaked out mid kiss.”

“Oh, uh, hi Metus. From what Jin-Woo said kissing is basically a proposal for you guys, and I am not ready for that kind of commitment after one date, no matter how nice it was.”

“I see. Am I correct in assuming you don’t know why?”

“Uh, Yeah. I don’t know much about magic culture.”

“I can see how this could happen and will explain this to you as briefly as possible. I would like you both to be reminded that I am one of the prolific liches in history and don’t appreciate being demoted to a translator that has to give some girl ‘the talk’.”

“What do-”

Metus immediately cut her off. “There will be none of that. If I have to give an awkward discussion with the daughter of my dead lover’s reincarnation, you can at least let me do so without interruption.”

Song-Yi learned her lesson and waited quietly.

“You should ask someone else for more details, but for now this is enough. In deeply magical places, feelings have quite a bit of influence on the world and intention matters far more than it does in non-mana infused areas. One result of this is that when two people are physically and/or emotionally intimate in a mana infused place their souls can be bound until they die, so people who live in these places don’t do any kind of intimacy lightly. To recontextualize the situation, she has never left Hundred Cities before and is now on Earth where there’s very little magic and no soul-bond risk. If you have more questions ask someone else.”

Metus then hung up, clearly done with the conversation. Song-Yi slowly handed the phone back as she considered this new information and its implications. Esil seemed to be looking everywhere but her, equally embarrassed by the situation. Song-Yi communicated with her the way they had most of the day, a nervous smile and a thumbs up.

Jin-Woo was sitting in the dark and watching the door, somewhere between worried and annoyed. It was almost eleven o’clock and Song-Yi should have been back hours ago. Either something went wrong or she wasn’t taking his rules seriously, both things he’d like to avoid. Finally, he heard the door creak open as she slowly crept inside, probably hoping to sneak to her room without being noticed. There was definitely a piece of him that enjoyed doing the cliche thing and coughing to get her attention before turning the light on.

“Woah, hey there. What a coincidence to run into each other on this wonderful night. I wouldn’t want to bother you though, so I’ll be going on my way.”

He just gestured to the chair opposite him and waited for her to sit down. Okay, maybe he really liked doing stereotypical parent things even though he had been genuinely concerned.

“On second thought, I think sitting here and talking about it is an even better idea.”

“Do you have any idea how worried I was? I was expecting you home three hours ago and neither of you were picking up your phones.”

She hung her head, clearly feeling at least a bit bad about it. “Sorry, I really did just lose track of time.”

“Really? And what had you so distracted you- wait, are those burns on your face?”

She immediately looked about ten times as guilty, turning so he couldn’t clearly see her face. “Whaaat?? How would that even happen? Anyways, I feel very scolded and won’t do it ever again ever.”

“Wait one second. You have them on your hand too. What on Earth were you doing that gives you first degree burns around your mouth and two fing- oh god. Oh no. Don’t tell me that’s how you got burns?”

“I think you know the answer to that question already. Yeahhhh, it turns out that demons have a way higher inner temperature, but luckily you didn’t raise a quitter. On the upside I learned a lot about demon culture.”

“Just… Just go to bed, please. Wait, come here first.” He quickly had Beru pop out of his shadow for a moment to heal her burns. As she scampered off to bed he put his head in his hands, eternally grateful that he’d decided against looking through the summon in her shadow to check on her.

When a thought passed his mind he shouted through the house as he considered what he knew of demons. “Are you getting married to Esil?!?!”

Chapter Text

Jin-Woo moved a shadow back and forth across his desk as he half listened to the general’s complaints for the seemingly hundredth time. He couldn’t get the shadows to become tangible or three dimensional, even though he knew it was possible, but his ability to manipulate them had become far more fine-tuned since their meeting with the Architect.

“I don’t think you’re taking the security risks seriously. It was already reckless to bring them out of the gate, but at least they’ve been kept contained on base. You would have us release them into the public without any restriction or safeguards. We should be modifying the base to have greater defenses and capacity, not moving them into the goddamn suburbs.”

“Yes, General. Your concerns have been noted. Just as they were throughout the process of finding a proper location for the rescued Denizens. The plans in place were created from over a week of debating before any construction began. This wasn’t done without thought or proper precautions.”

“Proper precautions?! All you have is a glorified doorman to track who leaves and enters, and all surveillance is kept outside or in the lobby. Most hotels have tighter security! We should be keeping these monsters under lock and key until they’re needed!”

As the general made wide gestures, shadows of his arms moved across his desk. Jin-Woo reached forward and placed a finger on the shadow of his hand as it passed by, locking it in place. Not only did the shadow stop moving, but the hand it mirrored froze as well, a sliver of fear leaked onto the General’s face.

“I think there’s been a misunderstanding. I listen to your complaints and whining because I don’t want people to believe I think I’m above the government and the law. I want it clear that I’m following the proper chain of command and not making a power grab. That doesn’t mean you matter or that you have any actual influence over me. You think of them as your prisoners, but you’re wrong on both counts. They are not prisoners, they are not here to be contained or controlled, they are people just like anyone else. And most importantly, they are not yours .”

Jin-Woo’s eyes gained a blue and fiery glow, in sharp contrast to the rapidly expanding and darkening shadows around him. “They are my people and any action against them is action against me. So I suggest you keep that in mind before making any more ‘recommendations’.”

With that he finally released the man’s shadow and let him flee his office. Jin-Woo sighed deeply and pulled up a list on his phone named ‘changes since the soul merge’. Below the most recent additions, ‘shadow manipulation’ and ‘uncomfortable in bright places’, he added ‘responds badly to questioning authority’ and ‘highly possessive of people I represent/rule’.

The first time the Architect had added to his soul the changes had primarily been physical and magical. Sure, he’d gotten a lot more confident, but that was more because he was strong that anything the process itself did. This time, he wasn’t changed physically, but his magic and personality was shifting. He was still himself, but his knee jerk emotional responses had definitely started to change to be more similar to Ashborn. 

At Jin-Chul’s request, he kept track of everything he noticed, even if it was something minor like his new preference to work with all the lights off and his ability to see in the dark. He agreed with the idea, wanting to keep an eye on how this was changing him.

He pondered it for another minute or two before his next meeting came with a polite knock.

“Come in.”

A kind middle aged woman came in with a smile, bringing a wildly different energy to the meeting than the General had.

“Hello, Sung, it’s good to see you again.”

“You as well, Minister Jang.” The Minister of International Affairs had always been a friendly face in the relatively short time he’d been working in the KHA.

“I think you can guess why I’m here today, and why I’m meeting with you directly.”

“Yeah, the S gate that showed up in Japan yesterday, right? I can imagine that’s an absolute mess for your department.”

She gave a long sigh. “Our office is split between those that are and aren’t in the know about Japan’s scheme to kill our S ranks. The ones that don’t know think that we should be helping to varying extents, and the ones that do know range from doing the bare minimum to actively sabotaging them.”

“Wow, that’s a pretty diverse set of options. I’m going to assume we aren’t planning on letting whatever’s in there destroy Japan?”

She chuckled. “No, even if it would make my life easier. The public sees this as a chance to turn over a new leaf and have good relations. Japan lost their Nation Ranked hunter helping to protect Korea, so now our Nation Ranked will return the favor and protect them. Behind closed doors we’ll try and get all we can out of it. Obviously, this depends entirely on if you’re willing to help them. Even if you say no they should still be fine, we’ve heard they’re in talks with the Russian Nation Ranked.”

He thought it over and nodded slowly. “I can work with that. I’d have two conditions. First, I want them to still hire Yuri. If we’ve read that gate right it’ll be like nothing we’ve seen since Kamish destroyed half of the US.”

She nodded. “That’s fair enough. It’ll cut down on how much we can bargain for, but I trust your judgement on what you’ll need. What else?”

“I want everyone involved with their Jeju island plan held accountable. And not some random scapegoats either, I want the actual perpetrators. We already know most of their names, but going after them ourselves would have some people calling for war and even more questioning how we got our information. Giving them the chance to handle it themselves lets them save some face and avoid the conflict escalating.”

“That’s… not a small ask. You know as well as I do that some of the people involved were high ranked officials and it’s not a bell that we can unring. It would be hard to keep this quiet if we took that path and things will only get more complicated once it goes public. Some will question if it’s worth causing an international incident over an attempted sabotage that hurt them far more than it did us.”

“I don’t know how to say this professionally or nicely, but I don’t want this handled quietly. I want them made an example of. Everyone is expecting me to save the world and be this amazing leader, but how can I do that while worrying about groups attacking or betraying each other everytime we go into battle?” He gave a deep sigh, collecting himself. “If it comes down to it, I won’t let innocent people die and I’ll step in. But I’d prefer you tell them that it’s an ultimatum for me to help.”

She sat quietly for a minute, just watching him as she thought it over. She could see his argument, but there were already people worried about how much influence the man had. Between his hunter friends, government connections, demon followers, his odd alliance with Andre, and the man himself, there was a very real argument for Jin-Woo having more power in his corner than the rest of the world. That said, there were far worse people to have unrivaled power than a young man who just wanted to help people and protect his family.

“Alright. I’ll see what I can do. We'll try to have a plan by the end of tomorrow and start negotiations the day after. I’ll keep you up to date on any updates and what your part in this will look like.”

He nodded and pulled out his list again as she left. He added ‘strong feelings on betrayal’ but deleted it as he remembered the first time he’d killed humans. The rage that they’d turn on their allies turning into their blood on his hands. Yeah, he supposed that was always a sore spot after he was left behind in the double dungeon.

A few more meetings came and left before he could handle the last task of the day. He hopped on Kaisel and flew down to a gate downtown. He let Kaisel slip into his shadow right as they touched the ground, leading to a very smooth and (in his opinion) cool dismount. He looked at the various work teams, all sitting around ready to collect any bodies and crystals, and went up to the site manager.

“So, what do you have for me today?”

“It’s a mid strength A rank with a mix of undead, mostly skeletons and zombie ogres.”

He nodded, walking with the man as he headed into the gate. His goal of freeing denizens hadn’t stopped when he left the red gate, there were just more logistics. Because any denizen less than upper A and lower S rank had low chances of surviving the process, and even lower chances of keeping their mind, that cut down their options by a lot. They also had to be careful not to free someone that would still turn against humanity, which meant prioritizing the undead and demonic since they were more likely to be loyal to Jin-Woo.

He chatted with the manager a bit more on what information they had before going inside. It was a fairly standard cave dungeon, destroyed skeletons scattered around the entrance from the hunter team that had been sent in initially to scout it out.

As he walked into the main area he let his mana flare, getting the attention of any Denizens inside. Within a minute he heard the clattering of bones and the clanking of metal as hundreds of armored skeletons filled the tunnel as they got into formation. They stood still, seemingly unsure if they were supposed to fight or not. Time to see if they would be loyal or not.

“I am your Monarch. Kneel.”

As one, they all took a knee in front of him. He could feel his influence over them, they felt like something between a sentient being and a mindless construct like the suits of armor. He didn’t have the time or energy to free all of them so he’d leave them be for the moment and make a decision later on. He doubted that his control over these undead would be as strong while he wasn’t there and they’d probably attack any human they found as the Essence Stone overruled his orders.

He walked past them, pausing as they began to follow him. “Wait here.”

Repeating that with massive zombies and other skeleton contingents, he eventually made his way to the boss area. He pushed open the large ornate door and stepped into an open room filled with shadows and the smell of death, blue flames flickering along the walls. In the center of the dimly lit chamber hovered something that could only be a lich. They were wrapped in a thick cape of pure darkness, similar to Metus’ cloak and probably a creation of his prior self.

The most interesting thing about them though, was what they didn’t have. Their entire body was a skull, a ribcage holding a glowing essence stone, and two arms, none of the four pieces attached to each other. The lich lurched forwards at the sight of Jin-Woo, who was about to bring forth his army when they halted in their tracks.

“Oh. My. God. You’re back! I knew you’d make it! I heard the news that Baran killed you while you fought the Rulers, but I knew you wouldn’t stay down!”

Jin-Woo smiled at the excitable floating bones, pieces of memory flashing through his mind. He remembered giving him that cape as a mark of being one of Ashborn's chosen . He remembered watching his apprentice show off his newest creations with childlike glee.

“It’s good to see you, Akos. Let’s see if we can’t get you free of that slaver crystal, I look forward to having you at my side again.”

“Yes! I have so many questions and ideas! Let’s fuck shit up!”

Chapter Text

Jin-Woo adjusted his tie and walked off the private jet, doing his best to look as professional as he could. He didn’t like traveling on private planes or other ‘rich people’ things like that, it felt wasteful and excessive, but this time it was needed. All air traffic in and out of Tokyo had stopped once the evacuations were completed so the KHA had hired a plane specifically for him. He considered teleporting in, but both countries wanted the press to show off this moment of collaboration.

He smiled and waved to the various flashing cameras, ignoring the barrage of questions being thrown his way. He walked up to the prime minister and gave him a firm handshake, prolonged for an extra second or two as the reporters took photos of what would likely be the front page picture.

The whole thing was almost uncomfortably scripted. From who he shook hands with to the brief words he said on unity and fighting together. He said a few things commending the leader on finding and arresting the vile criminals that had cost the Jeju-Island hunters their lives. The news had spun it as Japan coming across a terrible scheme by the power hungry and stupid who got Japanese hunters killed because of their hubris. Said power hungry idiots at the center of the scandal were a general and the head of the Japanese Hunter Association.

All involved were treated as traitors, the fact that their intention was to harm Korea rather than their countrymen was largely ignored. It wasn’t exactly what Jin-Woo wanted, but it was a less politically volatile story and good enough for him since the perpetrators were dealt with.

He gave a few more photographable moments before getting into a limo waiting for them. The Prime Minister joined them in the vehicle, the privacy window closed so that their words wouldn’t be overheard by the driver.

“Outside of the platitudes and canned words we said for the press, I do genuinely appreciate what you’re doing for us. You had plenty of reasons to turn us down and leave us to rely on Yuri, but you didn’t and you’ll always have my gratitude for that. Our options were deeply limited and if my country’s safety must be left in the hands of a foreign hunter, I’d prefer you take the lead over him any day.”

Jin-Woo nodded in understanding. The Russian mage didn’t have the best reputation. The man was a powerhouse, but on the lower end compared to other Nation Ranked hunters and his abilities were exclusively defensive, making him struggle to clear gates solo the way most Nation Ranked did. On top of that he charged insane fees to exploit vulnerable countries. There were few hunters that could handle S rank gates, and even fewer that could be hired by a foreign power at any given time, meaning Yuri could easily have been the only choice available for the prime minister.

“Of course. I think we’ll have this all cleared up before it has a chance to break tomorrow so we can keep the fighting inside the gate.”

“Yes, that would be greatly appreciated if that is at all possible. We managed to evacuate Tokyo, but obviously we’d prefer not needing to rebuild.”

They spoke back and forth until they arrived at a Hunter Association building near the portal. It was one of the few places that still had people bustling around in the unusually silent city as the Japanese government used it as their base of operations for the logistical side of things.

He split off from the leader under the excuse of changing into his gear and made his way to an unused office, locking the door behind him. He waited a few seconds as his summons took up their unseen posts in the hallway, hiding in various shadows.

“Alright, it’s safe to come out now. I still think this is a bit excessive though.”

Jin-Chul materialized next to him, dropping the Stealth he’d been keeping up since the plane had landed. “I disagree. There’s no way I was letting you go into this mess on your own, and we both know it’s easiest for me to  keep you safe when no one knows I’m around in the first place.”

“Yes, yes. You’ve made yourself very clear that I’m not the best at keeping myself safe.”

“Between your terrible luck and reckless nature, you absolutely need someone keeping an eye on you.”

He smiled, appreciating the deep care behind that worry. “Thanks darling.” Jin-Woo gave his partner a quick kiss before doing what he said he would and suiting up.

“Overall I think we should be able to continue as planned. At the very least there I haven’t found any sign of sabotage or surveillance, they seemed to have learned from last time.”

“Good to hear. Hopefully dealing with Yuri won’t be too bad.” He finished by pulling on his now iconic horse skull mask, the bone bursting into flame once it was settled on his head. “Time to get to work.”

Jin-Chul faded back out of existence and followed behind his lover as they went to get any last minute logistics handled before entering the gate.

After a few minutes of planning out who would be where and what support staff to have on hand, he finally met the Russian hunter who’d decided to wait by the gate instead of join any of the meetings. The man was lounging with a bottle of whiskey in his hand and a young woman, officially his translator and assistant, basically draped over him.

Of all the languages he’d picked up through his necromancy he hadn’t actually gotten his hands on Russian yet and needed to rely on the man’s assistant to make any plans. It was an… interesting experience.

“Yes, I understand that this was  initially your job. No, I’m not trying to take your money.”

The assistant, Sasha, translated his words and seemed to flirt with Yuri at least twice before turning back to Jin-Woo. “He has concerns that you’re trying to take control and that he should be taking point on this mission.”

“Absolutely not. You’ll just drag this out as long as possible because your deal with their government has you getting paid by the day. I’m handling this today, with or without you. I just need you to do your part and hold them still.”

After nearly half an hour of arguing and a few threats in both directions, the stubborn hunter finally agreed to be helpful. With at least a bare-bones plan in place, it was time to head into the gate and see what they were actually facing.

Jin-Chul stayed close to him as they walked in, just in case Jin-Woo’s luck continued and it was another red gate. Thankfully the glow filling the massive cave system remained blue, though ‘massive’ was a severe understatement. Most dungeon caves were about fifteen feet tall, with the boss area tending to be a larger cavern that could be upwards of a hundred feet, maybe two hundred for particularly large ones. In this case the ceiling and walls were barely visible, it was hard to tell, but he’d guess it was at least four or five hundred feet.

The unspoken question of what kind of monster needed a lair so large was quickly answered as footsteps shook the cavern. A trio of bushy haired men, bare chested but with armor on their legs and arms approached them, various clubs and hammers at the ready. The most notable feature about them though was that each stood at least a hundred and fifty feet tall.

The moment the giant beings spotted them they went from a lumbering pace to a sprinting charge. Jin-Woo was ready to attack when Yuri casually strode towards them, hands in his pockets and without a single piece of armor.

The first attacker was halfway there when a translucent barrier appeared under his foot at an odd angle, causing the giant to slip and smack his head onto a cone shaped barrier that buried itself in his skull. Jin-Woo watched as the Russian hunter took the giants apart with almost cartoon-esc strategies, slipping on frictionless panels, walking into near invisible walls, and just overall tripping over each other as they tried to reach their target.

It was by no means the most efficient method, but he couldn’t deny that it worked. Once it was over Jin-Woo stepped forward and did his part.

“ Arise. ”

He felt them fight against him, only able to get one of them before their souls were beyond his reach. In a way he was glad that it took so much effort to raise them, it meant that the giants still had strong wills and hadn’t been broken by the essence stones. 

After working their way through a few more Yuri decided to be helpful and finally used the skill that made Jin-Woo want the man on the mission with him. A handful of giants stared at them from where they were locked in place by barriers shaped to the target and leaving no room to move. He gave the man an appreciative nod and sent Beru out, the insect flying up to the Denizen’s neck.

Between his soul being altered by the Architect and a few weeks of practice he’d gotten far better at essence stone removal. One trick he’d learned was to have his fastest summon, Beru, do the extraction rather than relying on his own reflexes to remove the crystal and teleport in time. He and Beru flashed back and forth across the room as he managed to free four of them from their bonds, the fifth dying in his attempt.

The second and far more significant change was being able to teleport multiple times in a row. He wasn’t sure exactly what they had done, but the Architect had done more than make him stronger. It was like the training wheels were taken off. The apparently arbitrary limits placed on him had been lifted, he could swap with his shadows when he wanted and store as many undead as he wanted. However, that didn’t mean there weren’t limits, they just weren’t enforced by whatever rules the Architect had encoded in his powers. Now he had to monitor it himself and pay attention to the strain that came from overusing certain abilities.

Once the impromptu surgery was finished they collapsed to the ground as Yuri released them. He looked at the crystals he’d removed with morbid curiosity. They were larger and rougher, even the magic felt a little off, like it was a prototype or some older model.

One of the fallen giants spoke to him in a deep rumbling and guttural language. “What took you so long? We didn’t think anyone was coming after the first few  hundred years, hard to know how long ago that was though.”

He was about to respond when one of the others cried out. “You must save our Monarch! Our king and princess are further in and must be rescued.”

He was already impressed by how mentally present they seemed after being held for so long, but he was pulled from those thoughts as he processed what they said. “Legia is here?”

He nodded, “Yes. You have to save them as soon as possible. Princess Vithos is near his chamber, wearing a necklace of tusks similar to his. He is not well though. They tried so many of their wicked crystals on him, but none ever worked how they wanted. When they could not break his spirit, they broke his body instead.”

“I will do whatever I can to get him free, along with however many others I can.”

The giant on the ground shook his head. “I’m old, not blind. I can see the toll it takes and I’m begging you to save them first before trying to rescue anyone else.”

He wasn’t entirely wrong, Jin-Woo was already a bit worn out from teleporting four times in a row. He could feel that it was a technique designed for someone without a physical body and he had to brute force it to some extent, especially when using it over and over. He could try saving as many as possible, but he’d risk not having the strength to save Legia. He could try and draw it out, leaving and regaining strength before freeing more, but he felt it was best to trust the desperate giant’s urgency.

He switched back to Korean and swore in frustration. “Fuck!” How cruel was it to have the power to save those in need, but only a select few while he butchered the rest?

He took a deep breath for a moment as he hardened his resolve before continuing forward. Yuri looked unbothered by whatever conversation Jin-Woo just had with the Giants or any feelings he’d had afterwards. The calm man however did react with intrigue when Jin-Woo had Baran and Beru kill instead of rescue the next captured giants.

They had killed dozens of giants by the time they came across one that towered over the rest, nearly twice the size of those around him. He certainly looked older than the others as well, so he was assuming that this one was probably Legia, he certainly had the presence of some ancient being and a necklace made of tusks. The numerous scars on his body also indicated that this was the tortured monarch they were looking for.

It was a difficult battle, he was capable of breaking through Yuri’s barriers in a single strike, but they took him down eventually. Jin-Woo was a bit bruised and battered from their fight, breathing heavily once he finally held the essence crystal in his hand. He could definitely feel the strain from teleporting once again after so little time and had to accept that he’d made the right call to not even try to save the rest.

“Are you Legia? I can probably free one or two more people, we were asked to save your daughter as well and that she would be wearing a similar necklace as yours.”

He got a long rumbling laugh in response that went on for nearly two minutes. “Sorry, that was just a funny thing to hear from the first outsider in milenia. I am the princess, besides, I am his great, great, great, granddaughter, not his daughter. I will lead you to him.”

Jin-Woo glanced at the bare-chested woman(?) and decided to just accept that he didn’t need answers right that moment. Though it did explain why seemingly no giants, goblins, or orcs were women. Maybe men and women just looked more similar for some species? He shook his head and moved to follow the giantess that slowly rose from the ground.

“I’m surprised that you’re able to think clearly so quickly, usually it takes time for Denizens to shake off the commands they’ve been given. Is this a common trait for your people?”

She gave a sad shake of her head. “Not exactly. Anyone who couldn’t resist most of the effects died long ago. There were hundreds of thousands of us at first, now only the strongest few remain. That any of us will leave this place alive is a miracle we had given up on.”

It took a few more minutes of walking in silence to reach Legia's cell, and once he laid his eyes on the Monarch he understood why the princess had laughed so hard at his suggestion. At first glance he thought he was looking at a strange wall when he realized that he was looking up at an ankle. His eyes kept going up, and up, and up. Legia was on his knees, but still at eye-line with the towering Vithos.

The man was bound in chains with spikes driven into atrophied flesh in countless places. By just standing near them he could feel the powerful magic inside the chains, something wicked designed to weaken the body and drain magic. The Architect’s stories about Legia single handedly defeating beings considered gods seemed like they could have been an exaggeration of his skills or an underestimation of the Rulers, but Jin-Woo could understand it now. If this was the man when he was old and beaten down, he couldn’t imagine him in his prime.

His head slowly turned to face them, revealing eyes glowing with a deep red glow, each one the size of a small house. Just making eye contact was enough to feel a crushing pressure as he was observed with the calculating gaze of a being older than he could comprehend. Even Yuri seemed shaken by the presence of the Denizen before them, taking a step back so Jin-Woo was in front, clearly unused to facing things far stronger than himself.

Legia’s words came out slowly, with a rumble like the earth itself was trying to communicate. “ Such… interesting things… you have brought me… Vithos. A human… who thinks he can hide… from me … a mage that cowers before me… and a young Monarch… wearing the soul… of a dead Ruler. Now… are you children… here to kill… or free me? I should warn… that neither should be done… lightly. ”

Chapter Text

Freeing Legia turned out to be much more involved than he’d expected. He supposed he should have seen that coming, anything that could hold a monstrosity like him wouldn’t be easily taken apart. When they’d tried to break the chains all the old man did was laugh, amused that these little humans thought they could shatter something that he couldn’t damage after hundreds, if not thousands, of years.

The only real option they had was to cut out the chains speared into his body. So, with Beru and Baran cutting, and his undead S rank healers fixing the damage, they began the gruesome work of getting the Monarch loose. It didn’t take long to find a couple crystals placed in his body, but they seemed designed to destroy rather than control their host. It was clear that the Rulers were planning on killing Legia if they couldn’t eventually break his will.

When he brought Baran out, Legia gave him a slightly sad look. “It is a shame… infighting has gotten worse… in my absence. Monarchs will always fight… and compete…, but it has been… a long time… since they killed each other. I am sure… you had your reasons… but it is still a tragedy. To me… Baran was a kind boy… who loved his home so fiercely… and never quite learned… how to hide his emotions…, it is a loss to see him gone. ”

Jin-Woo didn’t know what to say, so he thought it best to keep his mouth shut. He turned to Jin-Chul, who had dropped his Stealth after being immediately spotted by Legia. “Can you go let everyone know what to expect? The last thing we need are people attacking Legia, and have them start getting as much food together as they can.”

Jin-Chul nodded and made his way back to the exit, “I’ll see what I can do. Stay safe.” As he left Yuri started to follow along, but Jin-Woo stopped him and pointed at one of the bombs they’d taken out. If they needed to do anymore bomb removal surgery, it was probably best to keep around the guy that could make instant bomb shelters.

It was slow going but Legia never complained or gave any sign of discomfort as his summons cut through his flesh. He felt like it was fair to assume that it was painful and wished he could help, but how would he even ask that? ‘Hey, being conscious while a magic ant does impromptu surgery probably sucks, but it doesn’t seem to bother you. If it does hurt, do you know a way to make cutting off chunks of your body less painful?’ Yeah, not exactly the most considerate thing to say.

Legia let out a low chuckle, speaking in the slow and halting way he did. “I know that face… of pity and confusion. Yes… I’m in great pain… but one does not get to my age… without a great tolerance for most things. Once, I fought alongside a skilled but young warrior… and was stabbed through the hand. When I removed it without wincing… I joked with the young orc… that being stabbed hurt less than you’d expect. To prove me wrong… he stabbed himself in the hand…, quite proud of himself… In managing to prove the Great Legia wrong… that being stabbed hurts.”

There was a comfortable silence for a few minutes until Jin-Woo brought up a thought that kept crossing his mind. “I’m not sure if you’ll know, but there’s something that’s been bothering me.”

“Speak your mind, child… we have much time before I can leave this place… and I wouldn’t mind the distraction.”

“I can’t figure out why the Rulers would open this gate. From what I understand, they want to strengthen Earth against the Denizens by sharpening our skills against the people in the dungeons and infuse the Earth with enough Mana to let them show up themselves. I can’t imagine it’s for the first reason since you’re both incapacitated and not brainwashed. And the second reason seems even less likely. I can’t tell why, but magic feels like it flows in rather than out of you.”

“Interesting… there might actually be hope for your planet… this time.”

Well, that was a less than inspiring statement. “What do you mean by ‘this time’?”

“The same decade or so… has been looped dozens of times…, maybe even hundreds. And in all those years…, you are the first human in my presence to realize the oddness…, let alone discuss it with me. Humor an old man…, what are your theories?”

Well, that was certainly not the expected answer. He had to wonder if a secret of the universe was just revealed or if the man had simply lost his mind from age and trauma. That said, he needed him as an ally so what else could he do but proceed like Legia was sane and figure it out later?

He thought for a moment, wanting to pick his answer carefully since this felt like it was absolutely a test. “They likely know that we’re looking to make some sort of alliance with the Monarchs, perhaps they were hoping we would kill you without question and ruin our chances at diplomacy?”

The giant was quiet for nearly a minute as he thought it over. “A wise answer…, but painfully human. You must remember that Rulers are not people… They do not think or act like people. As immortals… they can have a thousand failed plans… to create a single perfect one. Once they create a strategy… they will follow through and see how it ends…, changing course part way… adds unintended variables… and ruins the test. I believe I was placed here… to teach your people that Monarchs exist… and how to kill them.” He gestured to the three different bombs they’d had to teleport out of him.

“If you want to win…, you have to learn how they think…, how they plan…, and how to take advantage of it. Once you do that…, you might be able to save your people...”

By the time they were finally done the gate had already broken and Jin-Woo was worn out. His magic was drained and his face covered in soot and dust from a close call with a magic explosive. On top of that a good portion of his clothes were soaked in blood from when they needed to cut off and regrow a large part of Legia’s arm. But it was done now. The Monarch was free and could finally leave his millennia long imprisonment.

He started to get up, slowly moving his stiff limbs, each joint popping with a volume that could rival most artillery. Leaning back and groaning at the stretch, his back cracked with enough force to shake the ground beneath them.

“Ohhh, that’s much better. Vithos…, help me leave this horrid place.” It took time and a lot of effort, but she eventually was able to move him through the dungeon. The four giants he’d freed earlier were waiting for them and immediately helped their king however they could. Jin-Woo mostly just stayed out of the way, he was good at lots of things, but carrying a six hundred foot tall man wasn’t one of them.

They stepped into the cool air, the sun having already set. The six giants took their first breath of fresh air in who knows how long, basking in the light of the moon. As Legia pulled in vast amounts of air, Jin-Woo looked over in shock when he felt mana drain from their surroundings. It was an odd sensation, he’d never considered that what they considered ‘baseline’ wasn’t actually no magic. It wasn’t a huge difference, but that small change left him feeling off put, like staring up at the night sky to see the stars suddenly disappear.

He clearly wasn’t the only one to feel the shift, the hunters that had been nearby all froze as well as they grappled with the strange feeling.

One of the smaller giants chuckled at their reactions “First time around the big guy? All of our kin get our strength and size by absorbing the mana around us, but most of the time it’s not enough to even notice. It’ll calm down once he’s recovered, but Legia’s presence is always intense.”

He pocketed that piece of information as Jin-Chul came over to him. “How did everything go? It took you longer than expected.”

“Yeah, it was definitely tricky, time consuming, and potentially reality shaking, but we got him out so it’s a win. How about on your end?”

“See for yourself.” Jin-Chul took his hand to lead him over to what looked like some sort of construction site. “It’s not pretty but it should be sufficient for now. With a combination of money and free range from the government, you can get a surprising amount in very little time.” He gestured towards a row of dump trucks that he now realized were filled to the brim with fried rice and vegetables. Next to them were ‘spoons’ made from the shovel of a front-end-loader and a welded-on I beam for a handle. “We’d considered making oversized chopsticks but decided spoons were a safer bet.”

Jin-Woo snuck in a quick kiss to his cheek “Amazing as always. Did anyone have ideas for where they’d go?”

“There was an emergency meeting between the hunter associations that just ended a few hours ago. Once Legia’s role and importance were explained people split over wanting to host such an influential figure to gain favor, wanting to host him to keep an eye on him, and looking to keep such a dangerous being far away.”

“Were any decisions made, or just people talking in circles?”

Jin-Chul chuckled a bit at that. “Mostly talking in circles. But they did decide that they would stay with us in Korea as you’re our only translator right now. After enough butting heads they agreed the long term host discussion would be done by the UN since a video conference of random officials doesn’t have any actual authority.”

“Hm, who’re the main contenders who want to treat him like an honored guest? We can’t risk treating him like a hostile.”

Their discussion was cut off by the sound of a building groaning as Legia sat up against it and ate food by the ton. At one point he expedited the process by simply picking up the entire truck and just pouring it into his mouth.

Jin-Chul refocused on their conversation. “China is pushing hard, they feel threatened by us having Denizen allies and don’t like us potentially becoming a major regional power because of it. The United States are pushing for similar reasons while a few countries like Germany are offering to be a more neutral party that wouldn’t try to use them for their own benefit.”

He nodded slowly. “Got it, anything that is urgent? Otherwise I’m going to bed, I’ve been up for too long.”

“Right now we need to figure out how we’re going to house a six hundred foot tall man. There’s no building on Earth that he could even crouch in and no one feels comfortable making an interdimensional king sleep outside.”

They threw ideas back and forth for a few minutes before deciding to talk it over with the Monarch himself. They could see him slowly getting up as they got closer, but the princess stopped them before they could get in speaking range.

“Any questions and political maneuvering can wait. Legia is tired and needs both rest and healing. We will be staying in your oceans until he has regained his strength as being in water is easiest on his joints.”

She didn’t wait for a response and all of the officials stood dumbfounded as the center of their debates fucked off into the ocean to float around in the Pacific rather than grace any country with their presence. 

Chapter Text

Jinnah smiled as she danced around her mother while they both worked on dinner. There had definitely been an adjustment period, but things started to feel normal again. Both Jinnah and her mom were used to cooking for the family and butted heads a little bit as they both kept offering to take over. Her brother had called it the nicest and politest territorial fight he’d ever seen, with both trying to get to the chores and meal prep before the other.

Jinnah wasn’t even the biggest fan of cooking, but it had become her niche in the house, her way of helping the family run. So when her mom slipped back into her previous position of cooking and cleaning all day it felt like her way of contributing had been taken from her. After lots of communication and acknowledging feelings they came to the obvious solution of working together on meals, which let them start making nicer, more labor intensive meals without it taking all day.

She stirred a pot of stock that was cooking down to make the base for tomorrow’s soup, occasionally looking over into the living room where Song-Yi was watching TV. The news anchor was commenting on clips from Jin-Woo’s speech as he got ready to enter the dungeon with that Russian dude. She still didn’t like her brother going into dungeons, but at least this time he had actual backup this time between that Yuri guy and Jinchul, who’d snuck along.

They made a bit more progress on dinner when she heard a soft knock at the door. It was far past a reasonable time for visitors, and usually if someone was there it was for Jin-Woo or Jin-Chul. Even then they would usually call someone first or were picking someone up for a specific event rather than just showing up.

It was definitely weird, but they had enough shadow soldiers in the apartment to fight most hunter guilds, let alone some random person. Her mom spoke up to be heard over running water and the TV, “Song-Yi, can you get the door? Our hands are a bit busy in here right now.”

She heard Song-Yi grumble a bit before getting off the couch and going to the door, her voice slightly muffled but still audible.

“Heyo, who’s-” The sudden stop was already concerning and it certainly didn't get better.

A middle aged man’s voice responded, but quiet enough it was hard to make out clearly.

She’d already turned the stove off and started moving towards the door to see what was happening when Song-Yi called out to them. “Hey guys! Either Jin-Woo learned how to time travel in like fifteen years or there’s a weirdo at our door!”

Both women hustled over, confusion across her mom’s face. “Darling, what are you talking about? I suppose it’s not that out of the question at this point that he might be able to one day, but why would you-” She froze in the middle of the living room, staring with wide eyes.

Jinnah had a similar reaction, her voice shaking. “Song-Yi. That’s not Jin-Woo, that’s my dead dad.”

Song-Yi gave a slow nod before deciding to push forward. “Nice to finally meet you sir. Good to see you’re feeling better. Should we get another plate out for dinner, or are you more of a lich undead? I know Metus and Akos can’t eat.”

Jinnah didn’t agree with her laidback attitude and glared at her briefly. “What? Don’t give me that look, crazy shit happens all the time, just a few weeks ago your mom got out of a coma from magic demon blood. Besides, we have all sorts of undead friends now, what’s one more?”

At the same time, her ‘dad’ was staring at her mom, locking eyes until they both ran into the other’s arms. He spoke through tears that began to run down his face, “I’m really home again. It was all worth it. I’m finally home.”

There was lots of crying and words of relief on both sides, Jinnah taking a half step towards the table so she could reach her phone without being obvious by turning around. She pressed a few buttons behind her back while they were distracted before putting it back down.

Was she the only one that thought this was suspicious? Everything about this felt off. Sure, Song-Yi was right that it was a surprise and a miracle when her mom came back, but at least it made sense. A coma always had some level of hope, there was something to be fixed, and beyond that there had been a lot of effort to make it happen. Her father showing up out of nowhere almost ten years later didn’t make any sense and had no reason to happen.

She stared at him as her parents held each other and realized why his appearance felt so wrong. Sure, he looked like he did in her memories and pictures. But that was the issue, he looked exactly like he did when he died almost ten years ago. No wrinkles, no lost or white hair, no lost limbs, hell, he didn’t even have new scars. And they wanted her to believe he was stuck in a dungeon for eight years? Maybe it was some kind of inverted red gate where time was shorter on the inside, but even then she remembered just how bad Jin-Woo was after just a few months stuck in a dungeon.

Song-Yi didn’t have a good enough point of reference to pick up on how off things were, and beyond that her honorary sister wouldn’t want to ruin this by mentioning any suspicions. Her mom wasn’t a great judge either. Obviously her mom knew her dad better than anyone else, but she wasn’t the best at comprehending how magical and dangerous their lives had become. She probably wasn’t even considering that an illusion was a possibility. She had to stay on her toes while the others were blind to the threat, she’d do whatever she could to protect her family.

Finally pulling back from their happy reunion he looked over at her with the eyes she missed so badly, but she wouldn’t be tricked by whatever was happening here. “My darling girl, look how much you’ve grown up. I wish I could have seen it myself, but know just how proud I am of everything you’ve become.”
It hurt her very soul to hear those words from what was likely an imposter. She couldn’t take it anymore and tapped her leg three times, a signal to Igris (or any other shadow with her) that she was in danger or needed help. Her suspicion and concern turned to panic when she didn’t get a response. She tried a few more times but nothing happened. She dared a glance at the floor, only now noticing that the shadows in the apartment were a bit too light, the abnormally dark shadows she’d grown used to fading in the presence of this creature.

Oh god, a monster that could look like their father and suppress shadows was the perfect assassin to kill her brother. She had to be as careful as possible and keep it from ever reaching Jin-Woo or completing whatever its mission was.

“Jinnah?”

She needed to answer. She needed to buy time with whatever shapeshifter, illusionist, or puppet they were dealing with. If she got lucky she could get extra information. “Are you back permanently?”

Her mom smiled hopefully as she took its hand in hers, Jinnah fighting every instinct to tell her to get away from it. “You’re here to stay, right?”

“I wish so badly that I could. I can probably only be here for a few hours before I need to go, but I can stay in contact. Things are just… complicated right now.” It tried to give a smile. “Sorry to disappoint, Song-Yi, but I’m not actually dead or undead. It’s complicated, but not that complicated.”

Kyung-Hye frowned, mostly ignoring the undeath joke. “Can you tell us what’s going on? Are you in danger?”

Song-Yi piped in. “If you are, we have someone who can probably help. If you think Jinnah changed a lot over the years, then Jin-Woo will blow your mind.”

Her ‘dad’ looked physically pained as it grabbed its head. “No… I can’t see him yet. I don’t have the words, I just can’t.”

Now, that was a surprise, she’d expected the assassin to want Jin-Woo there as soon as possible. Maybe there’s other preparations being made and that’s why it showed up while Jin-Woo was in Japan? The plan might rely on Jin-Woo not knowing about the fake.

It moved closer again, only a couple feet away, and crouched down so they were eye to eye.

“I know this is a lot and a big shock, but things will be okay.” It titled its head in fake concern. “Are you okay? You’re shaking.” The monster reached to touch her face, making her flinch back.

Oh god, what would it do if it figured out she knew he wasn’t real? 

“Jinnah? What’s going on?”

She tried to smile and play it off. “Just excited to see you again.”

It squinted at her, clearly doubting her answer and trying to figure out what she knew. If her cover was blown then it would probably give up on subtlety and just kill them all. If she could just buy a little bit more time…

“How did you get back? Were you in the dungeon the whole time?”

“That’s a fair question, but hard to answer.” It paused for a moment. “I was only in the dungeon briefly, I was mostly in this area I can’t quite describe, like an endless field that has nothing in it but also incredibly dense. Honestly, the place gives me a headache every time I try to understand it. For how I got out… I can’t say. I’m sorry, you have every right to know, but there’s so much I… can’t say.”

It stared at her a bit longer before speaking again. “Jinnah-”

The shapeshifter was cut off as the kitchen window shattered and the cavalry finally arrived. In a blur of movement, and in all his furry glory, a half-transformed Baek stood between her and the creature.

He stood in a defensive combat stance, making sure to put the three women behind him. “I came as quick as I could, what’s going-” He froze as he saw who the intruder was. “Wha- how? What’s happening here?”

Everyone, including the creature, looked baffled at the current situation so Jinnah did her best to explain as quickly as possible.

“A powerful shapeshifter or illusionist showed up and is pretending to be my dead father. It seemed to fool my mom and Song-Yi but since it can suppress shadows I’m assuming its goal is to kill Jin-Woo. I sent an SOS text to the nearest S rank hunter” she gestured to Baek, “and stalled for time until he got here.”

Baek nodded, face grim as he took a step towards his old friend.

The monster moved back, looking to be on the verge of tears. “Baek, it’s me. Please, I’m real. I… I can’t say what’s happened, but I’m not some monster.”

Baek paused, clearly shaken by the plea for mercy. He looked between the different people in the room before sighing deeply and thought for a moment. “I have no idea what’s going on, so I’m calling a friend who can smell the different kinds of magic and no one is going anywhere until this is figured out.”

Chapter Text

Sung Il-Hwan had been trapped in a strange place that he could barely imagine let alone describe, like a blind man suddenly seeing a rainbow the first time. There were beings made of that same indescribable energy that hovered around him. He didn’t know what they were doing to him, but it left his mind ringing and his veins filled with fire. Il-Hwan was fairly sure that he was in some version of Hell until he was dumped out of portal back in the real world. He didn’t know how long he was in that place, but he would guess it was about two weeks based on the facial hair he’d had after it had.

He’d dodged some random Americans that tried to grab him as he left the gate and gathered his bearings. If he’d thought being trapped in a mind bending reality was alarming, it was nothing compared to learning nearly a decade had passed.

Eight. Years.

His family had been alone, probably assuming he was dead, for so long. Had they moved on? Did he want them to have moved on? Were they even still alive? The next few days were a panicked blur, diving into the ocean and swam in a desperate scramble to get home. He didn’t know exactly what had been done to him while he was in that place, but it made him strong enough that his ocean trip didn’t kill him.

Kill the Ashborn Kill the Ashborn

That was the other new change, aside from the strength. From the moment those beings got their hands on him his mind echoed with demands that he couldn’t comprehend. He didn’t know why or how, but for some reason he needed to kill this ‘Ashborn’ and he instinctively knew to search for a being with an army of shadow monsters. It was more than a little alarming, but being forced to hunt some monster was a small price to pay to get back to his family.

It took two weeks of swimming and then running across Europe and Asia to reach Seoul again, but he did it. He was on a high of hope and excitement when he saw a newspaper that showed the most horrifying thing he’d ever seen.

There, on the front page, was a picture of his son, all grown up and riding a gryphon made of shadows.

KILL THE ASHBORN KILL THE ASHBORN KILL THE ASHBORN

He held his head between his hands, trying to ignore the horrible voice. No. Why him? Why couldn’t this Ashborn be anyone but his son?

Il-Hwan considered that he might have never left that awful place. Maybe he actually did die in that dungeon and now he’s living his worst nightmare. In the end, it didn’t matter what was or wasn’t real, he would never raise a hand against his family. He was ashamed to admit it, but he considered taking his life to protect his son when the voice rang out again and stopped him in his tracks survive survive SURVIVE

He drifted around the city for another week, afraid to go near them but not sure what else he could do. Eventually he decided that he needed to see them, even if only to try and warn them that weird magic beings were sending mind controlled assassins. Do not reveal your mission. Okay, maybe he couldn’t reveal anything directly, but he had to try something.

It was concerningly easy to find their new address, which didn’t seem safe but he supposed that’s what happens when someone gets famous (it still baffled him that his family was considered famous). He felt slightly better about their safety when it took him a week to figure out their schedules and how to get inside, and even then it wasn’t easy. His abilities had been wildly increased, going from generating light to fine tuned manipulation that let him do things like turn functionally invisible as he snuck inside.

He’d had to wait until he knew for sure Jin-Woo wasn’t there, since he didn’t want to test what would happen if he was face to face with the Ashborn, kill the Ashborn, he paused and shook his head, with his son.

Sung Il-Hwang stood in the hallway for almost half an hour as he tried to build the courage to knock. He had been back on Earth for the past month and finally reached his family, that is, he would be once he stopped being a coward and actually knocked.

After overthinking it a bit longer he lightly tapped his knuckles against the door, barely hard enough to be counted as a knock. After hearing some talking inside the door was opened by a teenager who he guessed was Jinnah’s friend Song-Yi. When getting information on what happened while he was gone it seemed like people had seen her with his family a lot and speculated that she’d been adopted or something like that.

“Are Jinnah and Kyung-Hye here? I need to talk with them and I don’t know how much time I have.”

He looked inside the apartment and was assaulted by the voices when he saw monsters hiding in the shadows. KILL THE ASHBORN KILL THE ASHBORN KILL THE ASHBORN. He did his best to ignore both the compulsion and the undead staring at him, that wasn’t what he was here for. Luckily, the monsters seemed to recede within a second or two so it was one fewer thing to worry about.

She shouted something about him being Jin-Woo from the future, but none of that mattered when he saw his wife and daughter. His wife looked nearly the same as when he left and downright radiant. The only clear sign of time passing was her hair being in a different and longer style. She took a tentative step closer and that was enough for him to stumble forward into her arms.

He didn’t know what had happened to him or how he’d lost eight years, but those fears could wait. In that moment, all he felt was relief. “I’m really home again. It was all worth it. I’m finally home.”

He let all his worries fall away and just basked in the feeling of being in his wife’s arms again. Part of him wanted to never let her go, but she wasn’t the only person he needed to hold. His daughter had just turned nine the last time he’d seen her and it simultaneously broke and warmed his heart to see her all grown up. It hurt in ways he couldn’t describe to have missed so much of her life, but knowing that she was safe and healthy had to be enough.

He said as much out loud but didn’t get much of a response from her. She seemed to be in a daze, just staring at him with wide almost panicked eyes. She kept tapping her leg in some sort of nervous fidget as her face grew pale.

He supposed he could understand the panic, he had been gone for nearly half her life and seeing him again had to be overwhelming. He’d prefer she immediately get excited and jump into his arms, but he could understand it. He said her name to try and snap her out of it, which seemed to work at least partially, even if she still had that unlying alarm in her eyes.

“Are you back permanently?” Oof, now that was a harder question to answer.

His wife joined in, “You’re here to stay, right?”

His heart broke all over again as he turned them down, doing his best to choose his words carefully to not activate the voices too badly. “I wish so badly that I could. I can probably only be here for a few hours before I need to go, but I can stay in contact. Things are just” Do not reveal your mission “ complicated right now.” He felt the magic compulsion thrumming in his head, doing his best to fight it and redirect his focus. “Sorry to disappoint, Song-Yi, but I’m not actually dead or undead. It’s complicated, but not that complicated.”

They went back and forth for a moment, Song-Yi cut in and offered the solution of reaching out to Jin-Woo. He’d been trying to hold it back but the voices flooded in at the mention of his son.

KILL THE ASHBORN KILL THE ASHBORN KILL THE ASHBORN

“No” KILL THE ASHBORN “I can’t see him yet.” He so badly wanted to explain why he couldn’t do something as obvious as talk to his son but DO NOT REVEAL YOUR MISSION . yes, he wouldn’t reveal his mission, no need to scream it through his skull. “I don’t have the words, I just can’t.” KILL THE ASHBORN KILL THE ASHBORN

Il-Hwan took a few deep breaths doing his best to bury the urge to leave and go KILL THE ASHBORN. 

It took a few seconds but he got the urges under control. He crouched down to look her in the eye, trying to help calm his very overwhelmed looking daughter who’d looked to the side and started shaking. He reached out to brush the hair from her face, a motion he remembered doing countless times when she was a child trying to hide a face that always showed her feelings. The moment he got close though she yanked backwards and he got a better view of her. Her face didn’t look like she was overwhelmed from seeing him for the first time in eight years, it looked horrified and trying desperately to get out alive.