Inside the Shadow Cult's buildings, Kai trained nonstop. Even when he failed, he got back up.

Every swing, every breath, every push of his spirit changed him slowly—sharpening the way he saw and felt everything, including the glows and the vibrations.

"Kai… take it easy. Don't stress yourself," Jim said, walking over and placing a hand on Kai's shoulder.

As Jim's palm rested there, Kai exhaled heavily and opened his eyes.

"How can I do it right?" Kai asked quietly.

Jim moved a few steps toward the fence and stood beside the pond.

"You want to do it the right way. It's simple, do it for all the nights when you had no one but yourself. The nights you felt as if the world itself didn't want you in it. Don't let the rage control you. Instead, control the rage."

Kai grunted, leaned in closer to Jim, then bowed, "Thank you. I really appreciate your kind words." Kai said, stretched his arms and held on to the fence tightly.

"Why do most wine-dressed monks stay away from any member of the Shadow Cult?" Kai asked, his face shimmering with confusion. "Why do they say it makes people go mad?"

Jim smiled faintly. "Do you see the fish there?" he said, pointing a finger at a silver-colored fish that moved solely in the pond.

Kai hesitated, then nodded when he saw the fish.

"Do you know why most of these fish swim independently and still don't get attacked by larger ones?"

"No… but maybe they like to be alone."

Jim shook his head and brushed his left palm across his face.

"No... no... that's not the reason, the larger fish sees these as the deadliest. Even the mothers of the fish leave immediately after they lay their eggs, letting the unborn fish survive on its own."

"So you mean... they fend for themselves even when they're just eggs?"

"Yes... exactly. So, per the legends that had passed through this place, Shadow Cults, which was once deemed as the weakest due to the delay of time here."

"Delay of time?!"

"Yes... one month here is two months outside."

"WHAT!!!" Kai moved his hand from the fence and stood there, shocked by just hearing Jim's voice.

A sharp clap of wood cut through the air behind them and splashed into the water.

And at that instant, all the fish in the pond ran off, but the silver colored fish didn't; it simply stayed in its position.

...

The following day, as the moon's rays shone like torches on the pond, Yung Mai, Jim, and six monks wearing the same black and white stood at the centre of the bridge staring at the fish.

When Kai and three men walked out of the building without light, Yung Mai smiled.

"It's time for your endurance test," he said, gesturing toward the entrance where the half-moon arc door was.

Halting at the Staircase Hill, a long stretch of uneven stone steps leading into the night clouds.

Jim stood at the base. "You're to go five cycles; one hundred meters up, then down for each cycle."

The two men standing beside Kai laughed and shook their heads, but Kai stood there emotionless.

"Your speed at the start must be equal to your speed at the end. If you stumble, you start again. If you stop, you start again." Jim added.

Hearing the added condition, the laughing expressions on the two men's faces saddened, and while they stared at each other, Kai began laughing.

Jim's expression changed as he saw the only younger and skinnier boy among the three men who had the strongest bodies compared to the already recruited monks.

Standing there in black short trousers, Kai nodded, tightened the cloth wrapped around his waist, and stood in a ready stance.

Jack slammed the bell, letting a bell ring shot through the air.

Seeing the speed at which the three men shot forward, Kai closed his eyes and breathed.

Then, when he cracked his eyes open, he shot forward.

The first steps were easy, but by the fifth step, the bones in Kai's legs burned, letting his steps flare as he stepped in the shallow steps.

The more he moved, the more he felt his bones crying. His breath grew rough, yet he didn't stop when he reached the top.

He turned and went down, each of his steps threatening to make him stumble.

Cycle after cycle, the pain grew worse, causing his vision to turn blurry. Sweat stung his eyes, and lungs felt like fire, but still he kept going.

On the third cycle, as he descends, he remembered Gray - not his words, but the feeling of always pushing forward.

Letting the memory take control, which almost made him stumble at the start of his fourth cycle, Kai managed to stand up without letting the coordinators see him stumble.

On the last descent of the fifth cycle, his legs finally failed him. He stumbled and crashed onto the stone, scraping his palms. His breath shook.

Jim stood above him with a bamboo ladle of water. He didn't offer it. He just waited.

After a moment, Kai pushed himself up, trembling. As he rose, he tilted his saddened face at the coordinators, thinking he would have to start again.

But as Jim's face shimmered with a smile, the thought vanished, and when Kai turned and saw the three men standing at the top of the hill as if they weren't coming down, he laughed.

Jim splashed the water on the ladle on Kai, then turned.

"That is your first lesson in endurance," Jim said, tilting his gaze at Yung Mai, who stood there staring at Kai and nodding.

"Come. Now you will calm the will you used to finish this test."

...

A cold wind gushed through the half-moon arc door as Kai followed Yung Mai and five monks, leaving Jim at the side of the door.

When Kai and the six monks moved past the bridge and entered the dim and cool meditation chamber, Kai coughed, cutting the silence that struck the room like a bolt of lightning.

At the front, Yung Mai sat in a lotus posture. Shortly after all five monks repeated the same posture, Kai joined in, placing one leg over the other.

Though he was struggling to get it right, he did what he could.

"Meditation is not rest," Yung Mai said, his voice echoing in the chamber as if a megaphone had been placed at each side of the room.

"It is standing in your storm without being swept away. Each one of us carries a storm, and If you don't control it, it will destroy you."

Yung Mai began explaining the stages: from silencing the body, quieting the heart, and clearing the mind.

In the first hour, Kai sat there, unable to control and let his mind and heart sink together.

But as memories of him and Lieutenant Gray staring at the hunter and lion constellation flared in his mind, the conflict paled.

From there, Kai sat for hours, letting the pain in him melt, and the rage in him rise and fall.

...

Far away in Gorg City, Elina lay in a locked room staring at the cracked ceiling with wailing eyes.

She moved to the dark corner of the room when a footstep echoed at the side of the door. And when the door opened and saw the man who killed his Aunty standing there, she knelt down, begging.

"Please... please... don't force yourself on me again... please!" she screamed in a voice that echoed in the room, the hallway of the room and the street outside the building.

Even after hearing the lady's voice, Wang smiled, removed his jacket, and then shoved the lady from the corner.

He didn't look at her like a person. "Comfortable this way?" Wang asked, licking his lips as he brushed his finger on the lady's chest.

Elina didn't answer; she stayed silent, knowing how badly she would be treated if she screamed like she did the other time.

Wang pulled her until she stood by the bed, turned her, letting her back lie on the bed, and her legs hung in the air.

Wang forced his lips on hers, kissing and biting her until he bit her, letting blood seep out of her lip.

When Wang finished, he left without saying anything. As the sound of Wang's boots echoed in the far distance away from the door, Elina placed her palm on her face, sobbing.

...

Back in Bion City, heavy chaotic air flew across the land, carrying with it torn papers and discarded rubbers.

Inside the barracks, the fresh corpses lay beside Lieutenant Gray's monument as if they had no families to bury them.

As the morning sun shone on the silent courtyard, silver lights shimmered as the rays fell on the name badges on the chests of the corpses.

At the far side of the junior dormitory, Max stood there, completely shocked.

Although he came to see the bodies that evening, seeing them again in the morning left him completely lost. And now he knew they weren't in their full capacity to protect the entire city.

"Fall back to the remote sector," he said. "We protect what's left."

At the remote side of the barracks, the soldiers used broken walls and fallen trees to build a new inner barricade.

Hammers echoed where training sounds once were, leaving the old gate sealed - a silent tomb for the dead.

...

In a hidden garden beneath the left side of the meditation chamber, sharpened bamboo stakes covered the ground, leaving only small spaces between them—just enough for a single foot.

Jim placed two heavy water-filled buckets in Kai's hands. The weight pulled him forward immediately.

"You will walk," Yung Mai said. "Barefoot. The water must not spill. If a stake pierces your foot, you fail. If a drop spills, you fail. You will walk until nightfall. For seven days."

Kai swallowed hard, then stepped into the field.

Looking at the terrifying ground he was tasked to walk on, Kai missed staying with the wine-dressed people.

But as he managed to take his first step, he sighed, then grinned. The more he moved, the more the spaces he had to place his steps dimmed.

Every move needed a perfect balance, but it wasn't the ideal balance Kai wanted; he wanted to finish. Blood seeped out of his foot, spraying on the ground as he journeyed forward.

Hours passed. His feet numbed, then sharpened again while his body turned completely white as snow. He learned the spacing of the stakes through pain and the blood leaving his body.

Failing to finish the path smoothly, Kai collapsed, falling on his back. But as he almost stabbed his body into the jagged ground, four bamboo sticks crossed at his back.

Jim and three others used the bamboo to pull the collapsed boy and placed him in the healing chamber.

At dawn, as he woke up from dreams of falling into the jagged bamboo ground, he saw bandages wrapped around his feet.

"Shit... I have to get it right!" he said, jolted from the bed and burst out of the healing chamber...

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