The return to the base, the Phoenix Seed carefully wrapped in a cloth and pressed against Do-hyun's chest, was done in meditative silence. The object, though tiny, seemed to weigh the weight of an entire universe. It was not the key to the ultimate victory he had imagined, but a beginning. Pure, fragile, and terribly dangerous potential.
In HQ, the atmosphere was electric. Ji-eun revolved around his brother, burning with curiosity, while Soo-ah and Min-ho watched the crystal with a fascination mixed with distrust.
"So that's it?" whispered Ji-eun, finally daring to reach out a finger to touch the smooth surface of the crystal. The golden flame inside pulsated slightly, as if in response. "Is it... alive?"
[Analysis of the Phoenix seed...]
[NATURE: PURENEGITIC POTENTY NODE.]
[State: Sleeping.]
[ACTIVATION CONDITION: SPECIFIC ENERGY ENVIRONMENT - "Land of Zenith."]
[WARNING: Attempted premature activation may cause implosion or uncontrolled discharge.]
"It's a potential," Do-hyun corrected, delicately placing the crystal on the central table. "And for it to grow, we need to find this place. The "Land of the Zenith, where shadow and light dance without touching each other."
The parchment's words, poetic and cryptic, hovered in the room.
"Where shadow and light dance without touching each other," Soo-ah repeated, frowning. "It could be a place of transition. Dawn or twilight. A place where borders are thin."
"Or a place of perfect balance," Min-ho suggested. "A place where two opposing forces coexist without annihilating each other. Like... a neutral magnetic field."
Ji-eun, already leaning over his screens, launched frantic searches. " "Land of the Zenith..." No direct results. But "Zenith" can refer to the highest point, the top. A mountain? A skyscraper?"
"Shadow and light," Do-hyun whispered, his eyes closed, trying to visualize. He felt a weak resonance, a distant echo in his connection to the System. It wasn't a precise location, but a sensation. A sense of absolute calm, of silence beyond silence, and of two immense and opposite presences holding each other in an eternal and delicate balance.
"The Guardian would not have left an insoluble puzzle," he said, opening his eyes. "He tests our understanding, not our ability to guess."
He concentrated again, but this time he did not search with his mind, but with his soul. He let the energy of the Phoenix within him, that twin spark of that contained in the crystal, expand like subtle sonar, seeking an echo in the world.
And he felt something.
It was not a place, but a... fault. A tiny crack in the fabric of reality, so tenuous that it was almost imperceptible. It vibrated with that same energy of perfect balance. And she was close. Very close.
"I can feel it," he announced, his voice charged with astonishment. "It's not a place on a map. It's a point of convergence. A place where the barriers are thin."
"Where?" asked Soo-ah, grasping his spear reflexively.
Do-hyun raised his hand, pointing a finger at the ground. Under our feet. Not in the base, but... underneath. Deeper."
Min-ho's gaze became more intense. "The tunnels. Seoul's forgotten underground network. There are layers that even official maps ignore. Places dug and abandoned during the war, seismic faults..."
"It makes sense," Soo-ah nodded. "A hidden, timeless place where sunlight and absolute darkness could meet without ever mixing. An interstice."
The quest had just become much more concrete, and much more perilous. They were no longer looking for a mythical place on a map, but for a needle in a bundle of concrete, dark hay. Seoul's underground was a huge labyrinth, and some of its deepest parts were infested with things far worse than vampires - human gangs, mad cults, and perhaps other creatures that even the Clan avoided.
The preparations took a different turn. It was no longer a question of discreet infiltration or frontal combat, but of extreme speleological exploration. Min-ho came out of specialized equipment: strong suits, high-power headlamps, gas and structural motion detectors, and mountaineering ropes.
"We don't know what we're going to find," he warns as they equipped. "The maps are incomplete. The risks of collapse, flooding or pockets of poisonous gas are real. Not to mention the... inhabitants."
Ji-eun, of course, wanted to come. The discussion was brief and firm.
"Absolutely not," cut Do-hyun, more emphatic than ever. "This is the most dangerous place we have ever considered. You're staying here, radio. You are our eyes on the surface. If we don't give a sign of life every six hours, you alert Soo-ah's contacts and lock everything."
She opened her mouth to protest, but saw the genuine concern in her brother's eyes and the colder but equally present concern in those of Soo-ah and Min-ho. She lowered her head, reluctantly nodding.
"Okay. But be careful."
The downhill team was reduced to three: Do-hyun, Soo-ah and Min-ho. They chose a forgotten entrance, a condemned ventilation shaft in the underworld of Yongsan, far from any vampiric or human presence. Min-ho opened the heavy, rusty lid with silent hydraulic tools, revealing a chasm of darkness that seemed to absorb the light.
The air rising from the abyss was cold, moist, and charged with a smell of wet stone, rust, and something older, more primitive.
Do-hyun went first, equipped with a harness and slowly descended along the rough wall of the well. His [Vampire Sense] was activated, but he detected nothing but a deep, almost oppressive energetic silence. It was as if this place was dead, or asleep.
It took them almost an hour to go down, the well seeming to have no end. Eventually, their feet touched the ground. They were in a tunnel much older than the subway, made of bricks and stones, oozing with moisture. The air was still.
Min-ho was consulting his geomagnetic detector. "The readings are... strange. The field is disturbed. As if we were in an isolated pocket."
Do-hyun closed his eyes, focusing on the sensation that had guided him. She was stronger here, an almost imperceptible vibration beneath her feet, like the slowed heartbeat of the earth.
"This way," he pointed, pointing one way into the maze of tunnels.
They moved forward with calculated slowness, Min-ho mapping their progress, Soo-ah monitoring the rear. The silence was so absolute that they could hear the blood beating in their own ears.
Suddenly, the tunnel led to a cave.
She wasn't natural. Its walls were smooth, polished like glass, and they emitted a faint, clean, bluish-white glow, illuminating the immense space without casting shadows. In the center of the cave, the soil was divided in two. On one side, a surface of absolute ink black, which reflected no light. On the other, a surface of a bright whiteness, almost blinding. A thin line, sharp as a blade, separated the two halves, and the air above that line vibrated, undulating like superheated air.
Shadow and light. Dancing without touching.
They had just found the land of the Zenith.
But they were not alone.
Sitting cross-legged, in the middle of the dividing line, stood a silhouette. It wasn't the Guardian. He was a man, or what looked like him. Dressed in simple linen clothes, he had his face serene and his eyes closed. Her aura... she was neutral. Absolutely neutral. No light, no darkness. Just a deep calm, a perfect void.
And in front of him, standing on the line, was a small terracotta container, filled with water so clear that it looks like it contains the sky.
The man opened his eyes. They were the same color as the water in the container: light, infinite gray.
"I knew you would come, Heir of Fire," he said, his voice soft and yet bearing immense authority. "The Balancer awaits you."