The morning was not white.
Nor was it dark.
It was gray…
like Biath's body as he lay motionless.
Kim had not slept.
He sat beside him all night,
watching his chest rise and fall with difficulty,
as if every breath
were a painful decision to remain.
The black veins in Kim's body
had not disappeared.
But…
they had retreated one step.
Just one step.
And that was enough
to destroy him from within.
Kim said in a hollow voice,
"You could have died."
Biath slowly opened his eyes.
He smiled a broken smile.
"I would have,"
he said.
"If that would have saved you."
Kim clenched his fist.
Pain pulsed in his arm,
reminding him that he had no right to anger.
Neer entered the room.
He was carrying something he had never carried before.
A book.
Old.
Its pages darkened,
its cover cracked.
And Neer's face…
was pale.
He said quietly,
"I found it."
Kim raised his gaze.
"What?"
Neer sat on the floor.
Opened the book.
"What's inside you is something obscure that found something else—
but not a cure,"
he said.
"Rather… a pact."
A heavy silence fell.
"In this world,"
Neer continued,
"we believe that some things should not be healed."
He looked directly at Kim.
"They must be contained."
Biath shifted slightly despite the pain.
"Go on."
Neer turned the pages.
"What's inside you is not just chaos,"
he said.
"It is the residue of a moment of creation."
The air trembled.
"When life, darkness, and nothingness mixed…"
"something unnamed was born."
He lifted his eyes.
"But this thing cannot exist without a price."
Kim finally asked,
"And what is it?"
Neer hesitated.
Then said,
"I don't know if this is fully correct, but it seems that you either created something… or it was already within you. When you used chaos while merging many elements, it pulsed with life and returned—
and time became distorted."
The hands in Kim's eye
shuddered.
"You are not suffering because your body is collapsing,"
Neer said.
"But because time inside you… is being consumed."
He stepped closer.
"Every time you use your power…"
"you burn your future."
Kim let out a short laugh.
"I never had a future to begin with."
Neer closed the book sharply.
"That's not true."
He drew a deep breath.
"The solution…"
he said.
"Is a seal."
He stood.
"A seal that binds chaos to a single point in time."
Kim froze.
"Which point?"
Neer looked at the ground.
"Now."
A suffocating silence.
Biath understood first.
He said hoarsely,
"That means…"
"That you will never use your power again,"
Neer said.
"This is the only option."
He nodded.
"You will never truly recover if you do."
He looked at the veins.
"The pain will slow."
"It will not disappear."
Then he said the sentence that tore Kim apart:
"And if the seal is broken…
time inside you will die all at once."
Kim stood.
His body trembled.
"So…"
he said slowly,
"I either live incomplete…"
He stepped forward.
"Or die whole."
Neer nodded.
A long silence.
Then Kim said,
"But my core power… my fundamental element… is darkness."
Neer replied urgently,
"No, Kim. I know it hurts to lose your power. But this is the only choice. I swear to you—I will keep searching for a final solution, my brother."
Kim's eyes were dry, empty.
He looked at Biath and said,
"Do it."
Biath shouted,
"Wait!"
Kim turned to him.
"You risked your life for me,"
he said calmly.
"Let me choose how I pay the price."
He approached Neer.
Uncovered his left eye.
The hands were turning…
but slower.
The ritual began.
There was no light.
No explosion.
Only… a sensation.
As if time itself
held its breath.
Neer pressed the seal to Kim's chest.
Kim screamed.
Not from pain.
But from loss.
He felt something being torn from him.
Not a memory.
Not power.
A possibility.
He had endured so much to save his family—
and now that hope, that path,
was vanishing slowly before his eyes.
His only hope died,
without pain,
without blood,
yet he felt the loss completely.
The ritual ended.
Kim fell to his knees.
The pain…
was still there.
But it no longer tore at him.
It reminded him.
He rose with difficulty.
Looked at his hand.
The black veins were still there…
but motionless.
He looked at Neer.
"How long do I have?"
Neer smiled sadly.
"I don't know."
Then he added,
"But what remains… will be real."
Kim looked at Biath—
a man who had almost died for him.
Then he looked toward the window.
The people outside…
were waiting.
And for the first time in a long while…
Kim did not feel the urge to leave.
But something inside him
whispered:
Every temporary peace
has a written end.