The forest bent as four silhouettes stepped from the tunnel's mouth, heat shimmering around their bodies. Their eyes locked on Volow, unblinking, hungry.
Pine stepped forward—
not afraid, not tense—
just annoyed.
The hunters grinned.
They rushed.
But Pine moved first.
He blurred into them like a shadow cutting through moonlight—his heel slicing toward the first hunter's jaw.
The man bent backward in a liquid, unnatural arc, dodging by a hair.
Another flickered behind Pine, landing a blow to his rib cage.
Thud.
Pine barely flinched.
"Tch," he muttered. "Fast."
Two more attacks came simultaneously—one aiming for his throat, one for his knee—but Pine twisted, redirecting them with sharp pivots and short, controlled motions.
None of the strikes hurt him.
But he couldn't land any clean hits either.
They were coordinated, disciplined—
four parts of one machine.
Their feet moved in rhythm.
Their breathing synchronized.
Their stances angled to box him in.
The strongest Pine had seen in months—
but still not enough.
One hunter whistled sharply.
Every head snapped toward Volow.
Pine's eyes went icy.
"No you don't."
But they were already gone—
four shadows snapping across the clearing, reappearing around Volow in a collapsing circle.
Pine's voice exploded:
"VOL—!"
Too late.
Four killing blows converged on Volow's heart, throat, and spine.
Pine exhaled.
And released it.
His Gravitation Veil.
A perfect, invisible sphere detonated from his body.
The ground cracked.
Branches imploded.
The air itself folded inward.
The hunters were ripped off their feet—
launched through the forest like shredded projectiles.
Two of them hit trees with such force their bodies folded inward, crushed by the Veil's internal pressure. A spray of dust and fragments followed. The others hit the ground hard, limbs twisted grotesquely, their lungs collapsing from the shock.
All four lay motionless.
Pine stood among drifting debris, cane pressed lightly into the earth, breath steady.
"…Touch him again," he said softly, every word a blade,
"and I'll erase the whole damn Underground."
Silence swallowed the forest.
Even the trees seemed to shrink away.
Volow approached cautiously, heart pounding.
"Old man… are you okay?"
Pine wiped a fleck of blood from his lip.
"I'm fine. They're just annoyances."
Volow looked at the bodies.
"A-annoyances?"
Pine ignored him. His attention shifted to the girl from the tunnel, who stood near the edge of the clearing, eyes narrowed in disbelief.
"You shouldn't have come," Pine said.
"I had to," she replied. "If I didn't, he would already be dead."
Volow looked helplessly between them.
"Can someone explain why everyone wants to kill me?!"
Pine sighed deeply.
"Volow. It seems we're out of excuses."
He rested his cane on his shoulder.
"Now you need to start understanding who you are."
The girl nodded. "And what you're meant to become."
They left the ruins behind by noon.
Volow followed Pine and the girl through the forest, Suki trotting beside him. His mind buzzed with questions—about hunters, layers, Solum, awakening, and the name Arikson echoing in his skull like unfinished thunder.
"Old man," he said finally, "when you said all that stuff yesterday—about underground worlds, rulers, layers… you weren't… joking?"
Pine didn't stop walking.
"I don't joke about things that can kill you."
"But how is it possible? Why don't people know about this? Why don't schools teach it? Why isn't it in—"
Pine cut him off.
"Knowledge is controlled, Volow."
The air thinned around his words.
"The government only lets you know what keeps you obedient. Anything that threatens their stability is erased. People who learn too much?"
He tapped his cane.
"They disappear."
Volow swallowed.
"So the whole country… the protests… all of that…?"
"Done to keep eyes away from the deep world," Pine said. "The real threat isn't above. It's below."
Volow felt cold.
The girl added quietly, "And now that the seal around your name cracked, the Underground will rise whether the surface is ready or not."
Volow blinked. "What seal?"
Pine stopped walking.
"That's for later. For now, you need strength. Real strength."
He pointed toward the distant mountains.
"It's time you trained. Time you learned what Core Pulse is. Time you understood why your existence terrifies kings."
Volow clenched his jaw.
"…Fine. Teach me."
Pine smirked.
"I planned to anyway."
The girl stepped forward. "I'm coming too."
Pine gave her a look.
"You will not interfere with his training."
"I'm not here to interfere. I'm here to make sure he lives."
Volow blinked. "Wait—am I really that hopeless?"
"Hopeless? No," the girl said. "Underprepared? Completely."
Suki nodded—as if agreeing.
"Traitor," Volow whispered.
And so it began.
The hardest months of his life.
SEVEN MONTHS LATER
Wind scraped across the cliffs of the mountain valley as Pine stood on a ridge, arms crossed, staring ahead.
Footsteps approached behind him.
Volow stepped into view.
Different.
Stronger.
His shoulders were defined, his stance balanced, his movements sharp and grounded. His face had lost its boyish softness—his jawline clearer, his eyes calmer yet fiercer.
Suki was able to sense danger.
And on his finger…
The ring pulsed faintly at the center.
A tiny ember-light.
Barely visible.
But Pine noticed.
"…It's starting," he murmured.
Volow stretched his arms. "So who's trying to kill me today? Another hunter? Maybe five? Maybe a king this time?"
Pine cracked a grin.
"Don't get cocky."
Volow smirked back.
Behind him, the girl stepped out from the shade—hood low, her expression impossible to read.
Volow glanced back at her, still catching his breath.
"You never told me your name you know," he said.
She didn't answer.
For a long, heavy moment, she just studied him… as if weighing something.
Then, silently, she turned around.
Her fingers slipped under the hem of her shirt.
Volow blinked, confused, as she pulled the fabric up and over her head.
A dark sigil—sharp, curling, alive-looking—spread across her upper back.
"A… tattoo?" Volow asked, frowning.
The girl exhaled softly.
"It's not a tattoo," she said. "It's a mark."
Pine froze.
For the first time in months, real fear sparked in his eyes. His voice cracked as he stepped closer.
"No," he whispered. "That symbol—
you're… you're a Shinimoon."
The wind seemed to stop.
The forest went silent.
Volow didn't know what a Shinimoon truly was… but the way Pine looked at her made one thing clear…she wasn't an ordinary human.