Kim Hajin stared at the cracked porcelain of the bathroom sink, his hands trembling slightly.
He had recited the prayer three times.
He had offered his sincerity, his worry, and even a bit of his remaining SP as a conceptual offering.
Silence.
No gray fog.
No chuckle of a God.
Just the drip of a leaky faucet.
'Did something happen to him? Is he alright?'
Taking a deep breath to steady his racing heart, Hajin splashed his face with cold water and stepped back into the command center.
The obsidian table was humming, projecting a massive holographic window that monitored the Demon Realm Gate scenario.
His eyes immediately fell on a specific sub-window.
He froze.
In a tattered burlap tunic, holding a wooden mop with the grip of a man intending to commit murder, was the most handsome man Hajin had ever seen.
The man was currently calculating the trajectory of a dust bunny with the intensity of a grandmaster.
"Is that... him?" Hajin asked, pointing a finger at the screen. "The 'Supreme King' Yoo Joonghyuk? The protagonist Kim Dokja wouldn't stop talking about?"
"Yes," Boss replied, appearing at his shoulder. "He was dragged into Demon Realm Gate."
Hajin watched as Joonghyuk slapped a guard with a wet rag, the guard looking like he had just seen his own funeral. Hajin felt a sudden, profound doubt.
"Dokja told me this man was the hope of humanity. Right now, he looks like he's one floor away from a mental breakdown over a coffee stain."
Hajin shook his head, then turned to Boss, his expression turning sharp.
"Boss, where are Kim Dokja and Klei— I mean, Gehrman Sparrow?"
Boss paused, her eyes following the flickering data on the screen.
"I told you, Hajin. They disappeared along with Mr. Error during the battle beyond the Astral Barrier. It happened two days before you returned."
"They're my companions," Hajin muttered, his jaw tightening.
Jain, who was leaning against a nearby pillar sipping an espresso, let out a melodic laugh.
"That crazy adventurer Gehrman Sparrow? And that thin-faced constellation? You have a truly strange taste in companions, Little Hajin." She glanced at Boss with a mischievous glint. "Though, considering you're with us, I suppose it's a pattern."
Boss reached out and smacked Jain's shoulder with a dull thud.
"Enough," Boss said, her tone becoming business-like as she hovered her hand over the hologram. "We don't have time to look for the missing. Something bigger has been triggered. During the battle beyond the barrier, Shakyamuni unsealed the Golden Headband."
Hajin's eyes didn't widen in surprise.
"The headband that restricted the Great Sage." Droon explained.
"Yes. It gathered the attention of the entire Star Stream. The
Boss's eyes turned cold.
"Participation is open to everyone. Corruption Alliance members, secret organizations, and even the servants of Outer Deities. It starts in twenty-four hours. The Chameleon Troupe will participate. We need that story. Earth needs it."
Hajin looked at his smartwatch.
"I have things to do first," he said. "If I have time, I'll join you at the starting coordinate."
He didn't wait for an answer. He looked at the air. "Spartan."
Creeee—!
With a cry that echoed through the dimensional folds, the black hawk manifested. Hajin stepped into the bird's shadow.
"Well," Cheok Jungyeong rumbled from the shadows of the training room, watching Hajin vanish. "At least the kid hasn't changed."
"Where is she?" Hajin hissed, his eyes bloodshot as he flipped through the [Book of Truth].
Two streaks of Stigma burned away.
[Evandel is currently in the 'Uninhabitable Zone' of North Hamgyeong.]
Hajin's heart skipped a beat.
North Hamgyeong.
The ground zero of Baal's infiltration.
The place where the remnant powers of the Seoul Battle.
"Spartan!"
The world blurred into a mess of gray and violet. When the spatial distortion cleared, Hajin was hovering over a nightmare.
Below him, a portion of the coast had been transformed. It looked like a fairytale forest forced into a war zone. This was Evandel's Dominion.
In the center of a swirling magical storm stood a small girl. She didn't look like the child Hajin had left behind. She wore a small, reinforced cloak, her eyes glowing with the fierce authority of a Master-rank Summoner.
Around her, a legion of nightmares and legends stood guard:
A colossal black wolf whose fur crackled with mana.
Fenrir, looming like a mountain of shadow.
A Unicorn whose horn pulsed with a rhythmic, purifying light.
And many more of magical beasts.
"Hold the line!" a sharp voice commanded.
Hajin looked toward the sea.
Floating on the back of an island-sized Great Turtle was Ah Hae-In, Evandel's tutor.
She was pale, her mana exhausted as she maintained a barrier against the encroaching tide.
Beside her stood a woman Hajin didn't recognize—a woman with calm, porcelain features and an aura of profound wisdom, weaving threads of white light into the air.
This was Yoo Sangah, though Hajin had no way of knowing her name yet.
They were being hunted.
Rising from the black waves was a Sea King Serpent—a creature of the Sequence 3: Tyrant pathway.
It was a mass of blue scales and lightning, its presence causing the very oxygen in the air to turn into ozone. It roared, and the sky answered with a localized hurricane.
"Evandel!" Hajin screamed, but his voice was swallowed by the storm.
The Serpent lunged, its mouth a cavern of electrical arcs, aiming for the Great Turtle.
Hajin didn't think. He drew the Desert Eagle and shifted it into [Aether-Reinforced Sniper Mode].
Hajin pulled the trigger.
The sound was a thunderclap that silenced the Serpent's roar.
A shower of silver-gold bullets cascaded from the sky like a meteor shower.
Each round was a pinpoint strike, guided by the Master Sharpshooter gift, slamming into the Serpent's weak points with the weight of a collapsing star.
The Tyrant-pathway beast shrieked as its scales were shredded, its lightning neutralized by the holy attributes of Hajin's Stigma.
Hajin didn't wait for it to die. He activated the powers of his [Boots of Kurukuru], leaping from the sky and blinking through space.
He landed in the center of the dominion, the grass crunching beneath his boots.
The magical beasts growled, sensing a powerful intruder, but Evandel froze. She stared at the man in the simple combat suit, that he changed beforehand, the smoke still rising from his weapon.
"Hajin...?" she whispered, her voice trembling.
Hajin deactivated his mask.
He looked at her—tired, soot-stained, but alive.
"I'm back," he said softly.
The "Beast Queen" disappeared.
The Master-rank Summoner vanished.
"HAJIN!"
Evandel burst into tears, her small body colliding with his chest as she hugged him with enough force to knock the wind out of him.
She sobbed into his tactical vest, her hands gripping him as if he might turn into sea foam if she let go.
Hajin knelt, wrapping his arms around her, ignoring the confused stares of Ah Hae-In and Yoo Sangah.
For a moment, the falling stars, the Outer Deities, and the Janitor-Protagonists didn't matter.
The world was finally, briefly, quiet.