The air hung heavy with unspoken tension as Riven's form faded from my side, leaving only the cold indent of his weight upon the silk sheets. I'd known something stirred beneath his calm facade—his movements had carried an edge, a restlessness that set my senses ablaze—but still, I'd yielded to the quiet pull between us. Now, as I drifted from slumber's grasp, the sharp buzz of my phone cut through the dawn hush. My fingers found the device by instinct, and the message blazed across the screen: URGENT—ASSEMBLE AT HUNTER HQ.
"Damn that bastard…"
I hissed, pushing myself upright as muscles protested with a familiar burn. I stretched my arms toward the ceiling, watching golden light spill across the city's spires and glass towers—monuments to a world that balanced on the knife's edge between order and chaos. Then, the scene shifted like smoke on water.
Riven stood at the heart of a swirling tide of reporters, their voices a cacophony that might have broken lesser men. But he had been forged in fire since his awakening at fifteen; his gaze was as still and cold as winter stone. Unbearable, he thought, every fiber of his being yearning for the quiet of shadow and solitude. Questions crashed over him like waves against rock—Why the rampage? What drove you? Who stands at your side?—and each one he met with silence.
Until a single name pierced through the noise: "Yeonghon?"
In an instant, Riven turned. His glare was not merely sharp—it was a force, a pressure that stole the breath from every throat in the crowd. The clamor died to a hush so deep one might have heard a pin drop. Without a word, he turned and vanished into the grand halls of Hunter HQ, where destiny awaited within the council chamber.
Guild banners hung like tapestries of power: the gleaming star of STAR Guild—Yuseol's domain—clashed with the silver crescent of Hanuel Guild, home to Cally or Yeddah. Guildmasters from across the nation sat rigid, their eyes fixed on Riven as he took his place at the head of the table. When whispers of the celestial light that had torn through the sky rose to a murmur, he spoke, his voice carrying across the room like thunder over mountains:
"As you can see—that was my guide."
Silence. Absolute, profound silence. Then, a guildmaster shot to their feet, face twisted with disbelief.
"Did a ghost possess you, or have you lost your mind entirely?"
Riven did not deign to answer the outburst. Instead, he unfolded the truth as one might unfurl a map of battle—every detail of that fateful day laid bare, each word heavy with consequence.
Elsewhere, within the cavernous training halls of the Hunter training, I leaned against a stone pillar, my mind far from the instructor's droning lecture. I knew this lesson well—knew it from a past life that had been carved from loneliness and scorn. Why was I born this way? Why weak? Why forgotten? The questions had gnawed at me once, turning hope to ash in my throat. In that life, I'd stood alone at every turn, spurned by all for my meager strength, forced to face raids with nothing but my own fragile will to shield me.
But this timeline was mine to rewrite. To live, I must be strong—to be sharp as steel, cautious as a fox in the night. Monsters would not show mercy, and neither could I afford to be weak again.
"Hi Mister! Nice to meet you again!"
The voice pulled me from my thoughts, and I turned to find Seo Hajin standing before me—his eyes bright as stars, his demeanor as eager as a hound seeking its master's praise. I let out a soft sigh, but a small, tired smile touched my lips despite myself.
"Nice to meet you too…"
The silence that followed stretched thin as glass—until the instructor's voice boomed across the hall, shattering the quiet: "TRIAL ANNOUNCEMENT! Select your teams—five members only!"
Memories of my past flooded in like a bitter tide. I'd been left behind then, cast aside as worthless. But not now. I knew the path to victory, and first, I must gather those who would stand with me.
Before I could move, Hajin's hand shot out, his eyes alight with excitement. "Mister! Wanna team up?!"
I paused—this boy was no ordinary recruit. An A-rank awakener, his power already burned bright beneath the surface. I'd planned to assess his skills firsthand, but three figures approached before I could speak: a swordmaster whose stance spoke of deadly grace, a mage with arcane energy thrumming at his fingertips, and a healer whose quiet bearing belied a hidden fire.
As I gauged their ranks, my breath caught. There—in the healer's downcast eyes—I saw it. Choi Eunwoo. The Emperor Healer, destined to become one of the world's most formidable hunters. Now, he was but a D-rank, overlooked and unproven. Beside him stood Ryu Si-woon, the mage with a talent for bending reality itself, and Ahn Min-ji—the only woman in our gathering, whose blade had already tasted blood in secret duels.
"Ahn Min-ji…" I murmured under my breath. "The only one of us who carries steel like an extension of her soul."
"TIME IS UP! THE TRIAL BEGINS—MAY FORTUNE FAVOR THE BRAVE!"
Light wrapped around us like a cocoon, and in a heartbeat, we were elsewhere. But instead of the familiar clearing of the trial grounds, the stench of rot and iron filled my nostrils. Towering forms loomed in the mist—scales glinting like obsidian, claws curved like sickles. We stood not in safety, but at the very heart of the monster's domain.
"Damn it… why? Why must luck spurn me so completely?!"
EXTRA SCENE
In a forgotten corner of the academy, a junior assistant scrambled to right a stack of scrolls. Their hands shook as they sorted through the glowing parchment—one marked TRIAL GROUNDS, the other MONSTER TERRITORY. In their panic, they slipped, and the scrolls tumbled to the floor, swapping places in a flurry of light and parchment. With a nervous glance around, they tucked the wrong one into the activation array, muttering apologies no one would hear.
And so, the fate of the Yeonghon Team was sealed—bound for a battle that would forge them in fire, or break them to dust.
TO BE CONTINUED…