The return to base was a race against time. Do-hyun felt the purple mark between his shoulder blades burning like intense cold, an invisible eye glued to his skin. Every vampire in the streets seemed to turn his head towards him, their pupils tinged with purple, guided by this energetic beacon.
He used the Sense of the Filament not to spy, but to survive. He saw the purple ties of vampires converging towards him as arrows on a map. He avoided them, taking dark alleyways, crossing abandoned buildings, while maintaining a mental barrier to prevent panic from overwhelming him.
[BLOOD ENERGY: 70/100 AND FAST.]
[Brand effect: Constant energy drain + easy detection.]
[RECOMMINDATION: IMMEDIATE PURIFICATION.]
He finally reached the secondary meeting point - a small, closed internet cafe with Min-ho having a spare key. Soo-ah was already waiting for him, his face closed.
"You're scarred," she said simply as she saw him enter, as her own sense of bloodline probably revealed to her the purplish energy spot that followed her like an evil aura.
"Yes. And they know about you. For all of us."
He told her in a few short sentences what he had seen and heard. The Eye. Gorath as a spokesman. The plan to "drill" using the destruction of the Tree. And most importantly, the strategy to isolate them by eliminating them one by one.
Soo-ah's face became stone. "Then we strike first."
"No," Do-hyun cut, pulling the golden purification fruit out of his pocket. Then we protect Ji-eun and Min-ho. They are the most vulnerable."
He sat down on the ground with his back against a wall, and pressed the golden fruit against his chest. The object seemed to melt on contact, turning into a warm, liquid light that spread over his skin, looking for the purple mark.
Purification was a painful process. The golden light and purple energy conflicted over his skin, creating static discharges that made him grind his teeth. It was a microscopic-scale battle, the creative principle of the Phoenix against the invasive mark of the predatory observer.
[PURIFICATION IN URSE...]
[ENERGY CONFLICT: INTENSE.]
[THE RESISTANCED BRAND - IT IS ANCERED IN YOUR EMPORARY ENERGY SYSTEM.]
Minutes passed. Sweat was running down Do-hyun's forehead. Soo-ah kept the door, his spear in his hand, listening to outside noise.
Finally, with a final whistle, the feeling of intense cold disappeared. The mark was erased, but at a cost.
[Purification completed.]
[Walk-eye mark: eliminated.]
[SIDE EFFECT: Severe Energy Depletion.]
Blood Energy: 25/100
[FULL RECUPERATION Estimated: 12 hours.]
"It's done," Do-hyun gasped, collapsing against the wall. "But I'm flat. And they always know who we are."
Their return to the base, this time discreetly escorted by Min-ho who had joined them, was under high protection. They used three different vehicles, random routes, and all the counter-surveillance techniques that Min-ho knew.
When they finally walked through the secure doors of the HQ, Ji-eun rushed towards them, his face white as a cloth.
"They tried to penetrate the network," she announced without a preamble. "Not a raw attack. Subtle. Like... someone flipping through a book. They went through public archives, school registers, municipal databases. They were looking for models. Family ties."
She looked at them, her eyes shining with fear and anger. "They know where I was going to school. They know who my friends were. They found the grave of our parents, Do-hyun. The real one, in the official cemetery."
Do-hyun felt a new thrill, different from the cold of the brand. That of violation. The Eye didn't just physically attack them. He was searching their past, looking for psychological weaknesses, emotional levers.
"Did you lock all this up?" asked Min-ho, already checking physical security systems.
"I flooded the databases with false positives, duplicates, contradictory information," Ji-eun replied with feverish pride. "I created a hundred "Kim Do-hyun" and "Kim Ji-eun" ghosts across Seoul. But... it's a matter of time. They are methodical. Like an algorithm."
The analogy struck Do-hyun. The Eye behaved like a cold artificial intelligence, collecting data, analyzing patterns. Not like a being of passion or a thirst for power. Like a... process.
"It's an ancient thing that decided to experiment," he whispered, the pieces of the puzzle coming together. Ligeia observes and collects stories. The Eye... observes and experiments. He wants to see what happens if we push here, if we shoot there. If we destroy the tree. If we isolate the wearer. It's a... dangerous curiosity."
The revelation did not make the threat any less dangerous. On the contrary. An emotional enemy can be predicted, manipulated. An entity conducting a scientific experiment on a cosmic scale had no pity, no anger, no fear. Just a relentless methodology.
"Then we become unpredictable," Min-ho said, finishing his check. "We break our own patterns. We're changing protocols. We no longer sleep in the same place for two nights in a row. We communicate through encrypted single-use channels."
It was the ultimate survival plan. Become ghosts in their own city.
The next 48 hours were a marathon of displacement, camouflage and controlled paranoia. They slept in three different safehouses, never staying more than six hours in the same place. Their communications went through a series of disposable telephones and single-use codes that Ji-eun had established.
Do-hyun, meanwhile, focused on recovering his energy and exploring his new connection with the Tree. Even at a distance, he felt the Tree grow slowly, its roots sinking deeper into the mountain, its branches rising towards an invisible canopy. He also felt a new resistance, a solidity that did not exist before. The Tree was learning to defend itself.
[Tree growth: 22%]
[NEW CAPACITY DETECTED: RACE BAR.]
[EFFECT: The tree can detect and repel negative genetic influences within a limited radius around its roots.]
That was good news. The Tree was not totally vulnerable.
On the third day, while they were in a small, secure apartment near the Han River, Ji-eun, leaning over his laptop connected via a secure satellite network, suddenly raised his head.
I found something. A pattern."
They gathered around her. On the screen, a map of Seoul showed purple dots, depicting attacks or incidents related to vampires controlled by the Eye.
"Look," she said, connecting the dots with virtual lines. "It's not random. It's... geometric. They establish anchor points. Like the corners of a net."
The dots effectively formed a complex, almost fractal pattern that gradually covered the city.
"A net to catch what?" asked Soo-ah.
"To "pierce,"" Do-hyun replied, remembering Gorath's words. "They weave a net of modified reality. And they want to use the Tree as... as a lever to tear it apart."
Min-ho studied the pattern. "There is a weak central point. He pointed to an area near the old city center, where the points were less dense. "If it's a net, this point is either an intentional opening or a structural weakness."
"An opening for what?" asked Ji-eun.
"For the experimenter," Do-hyun understood. "So that the Eye looks through. This is where it will manifest physically when the net is stretched. When the tree is attacked."
So they had a target. A weakness in the enemy's plan.
But to attack him directly would be to play his game. They needed a different approach.
"We can't cut the net," said Do-hyun, an idea taking shape. "But we can... overload it. Give him too much information to process."
He looked at Ji-eun. "You created duplicates of us in the databases. Can you do the same with the energy net? Create hundreds of false signals from the Tree? Hundreds of fake "Phoenix"?"
A slow smile appeared on Ji-eun's face. "Yes. I think so. If I can reverse the scanning process, inject noise into their detection system... I could drown their net in a deluge of conflicting data."
"Meanwhile," Soo-ah added, "we hit the weak spot. Not to destroy, but to... introduce something."
She looked at Do-hyun. "The second fruit. That of links. If we can put it in the center of the net, at the weak point... what would it do?"
Do-hyun took the silver fruit, still intact. "He creates or strengthens bonds. If we place it at the heart of a net designed to tear reality apart... it could either reinforce it unexpectedly or create parasitic connections. Either stabilize it or make it collapse on itself."
It was a gamble. A huge risk. But it was their only offensive option that didn't directly confront an entity that could control an entire vampire clan.
The plan was drawn up. Ji-eun would create a massive digital diversion, a storm of false signals to blind the net. Meanwhile, Do-hyun, Soo-ah and Min-ho would infiltrate the weak spot and place the fruit of the links.
The attack was scheduled for the following night. The Eye accelerated its weaving. They had to strike before the net was complete.
As they finalized the preparations, Do-hyun felt a tug of war in his connection with the Tree. A pulse of warning, of concern. The Tree felt the danger approaching, the net tightening around the mountain, around it.
In return, he sent a pulse of comfort, of determination.
They weren't just the keeper and the tree. They were partners. And together, they would prove to this curious and dangerous entity that certain experiments had unintended consequences.
Like the unexpected resistance of a tree that refused to be a mere lever in a cosmic equation.