Light swallowed everything.
Not warm light.Not healing light.A cold, sharp brilliance — like staring into the empty space between unfinished stories.
I felt Do-hyun's grip tighten around my hand, anchoring me as the world blurred into streaks of white and gold.
Then—
Impact.
We hit the ground hard, skidding through dust. I coughed, forcing myself upright as my vision slowly sharpened.
Do-hyun rose beside me in one fluid movement, sweeping the area with a wary, controlled gaze.
"What… is this place?" I whispered.
He didn't answer.Because neither of us had words for what we were seeing.
The world around us was a hybrid — two layers colliding imperfectly.
A city skyline twisted in the distance, but half the buildings were only outlines, sketched in black lines like concept art. The other half were hyperrealistic — too detailed, too sharp, like rendered screenshots pasted over memories.
The ground beneath us flickered between pavement and script, switching textures every few seconds.
And the sky—
It wasn't a sky at all.
It was a ceiling of floating text, constantly rewriting itself in thin, shimmering lines.
[CONVERGENCE ZONE ESTABLISHED.][LAYER ONE + LAYER THREE MERGE: 12% STABILITY.]
Do-hyun muttered, "Twelve percent? That's basically zero."
"I think we're standing in the overlap," I said quietly. "The place where both our worlds agree we should be."
"And everywhere else disagrees," he finished.
We exchanged a look.
A shared understanding.
A shared fear.
Before either of us could speak again, the ground shook.A deep rumble rolled through the hybrid world, making the unfinished buildings flicker like broken holograms.
"Something's waking up," I murmured.
Do-hyun turned to me sharply. "What kind of something?"
I didn't answer — because the system answered for me.
[SYSTEM WARNING.][MERGE INSTABILITY DETECTED.][DEPLOYING ANCHOR ENTITY.][DESIGNATION: NARRATIVE GUARDIAN.]
Do-hyun's jaw tightened. "Narrative Guardian? Sounds like trouble."
A circle of code flared open on the cracked street ahead of us — bright white symbols spiraling outward like the petals of a digital flower.
Something rose from it.
Tall.Human-shaped.But like the world around us, it was incomplete — half its body sculpted in perfect detail, the other half rendered in shifting script.
And its face—
My breath caught.
Its face was mine.
Do-hyun stepped immediately in front of me.
"Stay behind me," he said under his breath.
"Do-hyun—"
"Jiho."He didn't look back.His voice was steady, cold — the tone he used only when he was hiding fear.
"It's not you. And it's not touching you."
The entity tilted its head — perfectly mirroring the small habits I didn't know I had until I saw them reflected back.
Then its mouth opened.
But my voice didn't come out.
Do-hyun's did.
"Unauthorized anomaly detected."
The sound of his voice coming from me made something in my chest twist painfully.
"That's—" I exhaled. "That's wrong."
"That's the point," Do-hyun said through gritted teeth. "It wants to confuse you. Or me."
The Guardian moved.
Fast.Blindingly fast.
Do-hyun reacted instantly, grabbing me and dragging us backward as a line of corrupted code slashed the ground where we'd been standing.
"Move!" he barked.
We sprinted across the unstable terrain, dodging flickering asphalt and patches of raw script. The Guardian reappeared ahead of us, its eyes glowing gold.
Do-hyun skidded to a halt.
"It's using your teleport behavior," I said.
He shot me a startled look. "I don't teleport."
"No," I said."But the system thinks your will should."
We barely had a second to breathe.The Guardian struck again — this time aiming directly for me.
Do-hyun didn't think.He threw himself between us, grabbing the entity's arm and forcing it back with a burst of glitching energy.
A shockwave rippled outward, distorting the world.
The Guardian stumbled.Do-hyun staggered too, panting.
"That… wasn't supposed to work," he muttered.
"You used the system again," I said. "Not just instinct — intent."
He wiped a trail of static-blood from his lip. "I don't know how I'm doing any of this. It just happens when—"
His eyes flicked to me.
And he didn't finish the sentence.
Before I could ask, the Guardian reformed and charged.Do-hyun grabbed my arm, pulled me around a collapsing street corner, and pressed me back against a half-rendered wall.
"Jiho—listen."
He was breathing hard.Sweat beaded at his temple.But his grip on my wrist was steady — grounding.
"The system created that thing to stabilize the merge," he said. "But it's doing the opposite. It's hunting you because—"
"Because I'm the destabilizer," I said quietly. "I shouldn't be here."
Do-hyun's voice dropped lower.Rougher.
"Don't say that."
"It's true."
"I don't care."
He stepped closer, eyes sharp.
"You're here now. And I—"
His breath hitched.A flicker of uncertainty — rare for him — crossed his face.
"I'm not letting it take you again."
Before either of us could say anything more, the Guardian's shadow fell over us.
Do-hyun pushed me behind him, teeth clenched.
"Jiho," he said."Run if I tell you to."
"I'm not leaving you."
"You won't have a choice if it gets its hands on you."
The Guardian raised its arm, script swirling around it like a blade.
Do-hyun's power flickered again — raw, unstable.
The world trembled.
And then—
A new system message cut across the sky.
[ADMINISTRATOR PRESENCE DETECTED.][IDENTITY VERIFIED: JIHO.][OVERRIDE PROTOCOL ENABLED.]
The Guardian froze mid-strike, body jittering violently as if something higher had grabbed it by the throat.
Do-hyun blinked. "…What did you just do?"
"I didn't do anything."
But I felt something beating beneath my ribs — a pulse of authority that wasn't mine, but had been given to me.
[Awaiting command.]
Do-hyun turned slowly toward me.
His eyes widened.
"Jiho," he whispered."Your eyes—"
My vision blurred with a surge of golden light.
And the Guardian bowed.