The cold wind on the streets of Tokyo felt like it was biting into Jin's soul. He looked at the small red crystal in his hand—the only thing left of the man who had turned into a shadow . It wasn't warm like mana; it was freezing, like a piece of the deep ocean.
"Jin, look up," Mi-na whispered, her voice trembling.
High above them, perched on the very tip of the Tokyo Tower, a figure stood perfectly still. He wore a long cloak that seemed to be made of smoke, and in his hand, he gripped a staff that looked like it was carved from bone . He wasn't a Hunter, and he definitely wasn't an Admin.
"That's him," Rin said, her voice dropping to a whisper as she checked her flickering monitors. "The one the old legends called the Architect of Ruin. He's the one who let the Void in."
The figure didn't jump. He simply stepped off the tower and walked down through the air, as if the wind were a flight of stairs. With every step he took, the red dots on the palms of the people below began to glow brighter .
"Jin Kim," the figure said, his voice echoing not in the air, but directly inside Jin's head. "You deleted the cage, so you invited the wolves. I am here to thank you... by making you the first to vanish."
Jin stepped forward, his Atlas Kummiya hissing with white mana. He felt a wave of fear, the kind that makes your knees weak, but he didn't stop. He looked at Mi-na, who was already connecting her silver veins to the ground, trying to create a shield for the civilians.
"I didn't delete the cage for you," Jin growled, his eyes burning with a mix of anger and focus. "I did it for us. And if you think a bone stick and some smoke can stop me, you've got another 'Error' coming your way."
The Architect of Ruin smiled, revealing teeth that looked like broken glass. He tapped his staff on the air, and suddenly, the shadows of the skyscrapers around them came to life, peeling off the walls to surround Jin and his team. "The Void doesn't fight, Jin. It just accepts what is already lost."