Atom sprinted through the forest, the predator's roar fading behind him. His lungs burned, but he didn't stop. At the edge of the mountain, with nowhere left to run, he raised his hand.
"Open the door," he commanded.
The soul responded. A rift of pale light split the air, humming softly. Atom stepped through—
and the world on the other side was swallowed in darkness.
A figure waited for him.
Sitting calmly. Smiling faintly. As if he had always known Atom would arrive.
My other self… Atom thought, his heart sinking.
"He's here again," he whispered under his breath.
The figure stood, his voice rolling out like something rising from the deep sea.
"Atom," he called. "Let's end it."
Atom felt his sister trembling behind him. He stepped forward, shielding her.
"It's me and you," the other Atom—Proton—said. "I won't hurt your sister. You have my word."
His tone was gentle, but the power beneath it shook the darkness itself.
The ground cracked. The air tightened. Two versions of the same soul stood face to face.
Proton's eyes glowed like distant stars. Atom's resolve hardened like steel.
They both knew what this moment meant.
Proton and Atom took their stances—
ready for a battle that would decide everything.
A battle for the future.
A battle for fate itself.
Proton rushed forward, his speed tearing through the darkness. Atom raised his arm just in time—
their clash echoed like thunder.
"Show me your power…" Proton growled, pushing harder.
Atom slid back from the sheer force, boots scraping against the ground. He steadied himself—
Thwak!
He countered instantly. Atom's foot slammed into Proton's knee, making him stagger. Seizing the opening, Atom drove his fist into Proton's jaw, sending him flying across the empty world.
Proton crashed, rolling until finally grinding to a halt. A thin line of blood trickled down his cheek. He touched the wound, and his fingers paused.
A small wooden shard broken from a tree was embedded in his skin.
"Lord Almighty…" Atom whispered.
Proton's eyes widened. Rage lit up his face.
"BASTARD!"
The tiny splinter twitched.
"Sihur…"
The wood expanded like a living spear and detonated across Proton's face—
BAM!
Smoke burst outward. For a moment, Proton's body lay motionless on the ground.
But then the pieces of his face began stitching themselves back together, reforming with unnatural speed. His regeneration was monstrous.
Atom exhaled slowly, watching the healing complete.
"You may look like me," Atom said, voice calm and cold, "but you are not me."
Proton's face finished regenerating, the flesh knitting back together as if time itself obeyed him. He rolled his sword in his hand, the blade humming softly, and smiled.
"The Oracle was right," he said.
Atom narrowed his eyes.
Something was off—Proton wasn't fighting recklessly anymore. He was waiting for something.
Then Atom felt it.
The air around him thickened… heavy… suffocating.
"What is this?" he muttered. The smell was sharp, almost poisonous, burning his lungs. The world around him blurred as a dense mist coiled out of nowhere, swallowing the darkness in a white shroud.
His vision faded.
Before everything disappeared, Atom saw one final image—
Proton rushing straight at him, his face twisted into something unrecognizable.
"I knew it…" Atom whispered.
That single moment—when Proton changed his face—shifted fate itself. Proton, who shared Atom's destiny, who carried a piece of his soul, called out the same forbidden mantra Atom had once used.
"Lord Almighty!"
The words trembled through the mist, shaking the world. But Atom realized too late—
he was wrong. All of this… the heaviness, the smell, the fog… it was a trap. A trick to break his focus.
The mist wasn't mist at all. It was one of his own hidden techniques, stolen and recreated by Proton.
"Damn it…" Atom covered his face against the force and leaped back toward his sister, shielding her with his body. "This isn't mist…"
A blast swept through the white fog—
and then everything went silent.
Proton was gone.
No footsteps. No presence. No breath.
The world stood still as Atom lowered his guard.
Proton had vanished completely,
leaving him alone with only the echo of that stolen mantra lingering in the air.
Every second felt deadly for Atom. Every step he took trembled beneath him.
He already knew the truth.
This wasn't mist.
"It is… explosive…" he whispered.
A voice drifted through the air—cold, playful, cruel.
"Sihur."
The word ignited everything.
The explosion expanded instantly, swelling larger than the mountains of Nori itself. Atom threw himself over his sister, shielding her with his whole body—
—but it wasn't enough.
The blast was powerful enough to erase the entire island. And Atom realized he had no escape.
Even if I start running now… I can't outrun this, he thought.
Proton appeared before him like a shadow stepping out of light.
"Too bad," he said softly. "You can't run."
Atom turned, grabbing his sister tightly and leaped onto a high branch, lifting her onto his shoulder, keeping her above the blast's reach.
"I won't let her get hurt," Atom murmured, voice trembling but firm.
Proton only laughed.
"Poor guy… You can't fight because of your sister. How fragile."
Atom didn't answer. His gaze was fixed on the distant castle—
a place he had been trying to avoid...
Proton watched him closely.
He knew why Atom looked worried.
Atom couldn't regenerate.
Unlike Proton, he had only one body… one fragile life.
And that was exactly why Proton set this trap.
He wanted this to end now.
"It's now or never…" Atom clenched his fist, gathering his sister and sprinting through the burning forest.
"There's no escape!" Proton shouted behind him, voice full of mockery.
"You can't run! You can't win this time!"
And yet Atom kept running—
not for victory.
But for the one life he refused to lose.
Atom ran as fast as his legs could carry him, desperate to escape the collapsing island. Trees blurred past him, the ground shaking beneath every step. But even while running for his life, one thought kept echoing in his mind.
Something is wrong.
He gritted his teeth.
"I knew it. He's just a clone of me. That guy is fake!"
But that wasn't the real shock.
The Proton he fought wasn't the "second self" who shared his fate.
No.
This was something else entirely.
A different presence. A different intention.
Something far more dangerous.
Atom didn't have time to understand it now.
All he knew was simple:
Run first. Survive first. The answers will come once he escapes.
Far away—on the other side of the burning island—Proton stood alone, half his body still scorched from his own explosion. Steam rose from his skin as it healed slowly.
He tilted his head back and laughed.
A wild, manic, broken laugh.
Then he screamed into the shaking sky:
"This is the end! It's OVER!!!"
The sound echoed like a curse, rolling across the dying island toward Atom—
a promise that the real battle was still far from finished.