The tunnel stretching beneath District 17 was dim and cold, carved from old subway lines long abandoned after the Ruin spread through the city. Emergency strips of flickering amber light barely illuminated the cramped passageways, but the stale air carried a sense of quiet safety—something rare these days.
Kairen walked in silence, boots echoing on the metal grates as he led Junah deeper into the Hunter transit corridor. The reinforced walls hummed faintly with warding sigils, keeping Ruin beasts from slipping through unseen cracks in reality. Down here, the distortion couldn't infiltrate. The Hunters used these tunnels as temporary safe roads between zones.
Junah followed close behind, arms folded tightly as though holding herself together. She kept glancing at the sealed containment pouch hanging from Kairen's belt—the faint violet glow leaking through the fabric.
That glow was growing stronger by the minute.
"Kairen…" Her voice trembled but not with fear—more like urgency. "That core is pulsing faster."
"I know." His tone was calm but watchful, the way a predator listens for movement behind dense brush.
"Does that mean—?"
"It's unstable," he said. "Rank B cores don't like being bound."
The light flickered again, casting shifting shadows across his face. Junah's expression tightened. "Will it corrupt you?"
He stopped walking and looked over his shoulder. His eyes weren't glowing, but something deeper had changed since stepping out of the Zone. A quiet intensity, sharper than before.
"It won't," he answered. "Not as long as I keep the fragments disciplined."
"But it reacted to you," she insisted. "I saw it. The moment you ripped that core free, the entire Zone shook."
"That was expected."
"No," she said, stepping closer, voice low. "That wasn't expected. It looked like the Zone recognized you."
He said nothing.
The silence stretched.
Finally, he turned and resumed walking. "Let's get to the safe outpost first. We'll talk after."
Junah bit back more questions and followed.
The tunnel opened into a spacious underground room—reinforced with anti-Ruin hexagonal plating, humming faintly beneath dim blue lights. A set of double steel doors sealed the perimeter, and a checkpoint scanner blinked as Kairen approached.
He placed his hand on the surface.
The scanner flickered, then emitted a soft chime.
IDENTITY CONFIRMED: KAIREN VALE — ACTIVE HUNTER, TIER C
WARNING: RUIN ENERGY DETECTED. UNSTABLE CORE IN POSSESSION.
RECOMMENDED: SECURE IMMEDIATELY.
Junah winced. "They aren't subtle, huh…"
"It's an automated system," he said, pulling off his coat.
Inside, the outpost was modest—two metal benches, a wall terminal, a medical station stocked with basic supplies, and a counter where Hunters placed unprocessed spoils. A holographic map projected from the center, displaying District 17's shifting boundaries.
Kairen placed the glowing pouch inside a reinforced containment box. The core throbbed once—hard enough to rattle the container—before the built-in runes stabilized its energy.
Junah exhaled shakily. "Good. That thing was making the air feel too heavy."
Kairen didn't respond. He stood with one hand on the box, eyes narrowed, sensing every ripple of energy now muted beneath the runes.
The Ruin Stag Core was unlike anything he'd collected before. Most cores had a slow, rhythmic pulse—a heartbeat echoing the remnants of the beast they once belonged to. But this one… this one beat irregularly, like a creature still fighting, refusing to die.
"Kairen," Junah murmured, "did that beast speak to you?"
He stiffened.
"…Yes."
Her breath caught. "Then the rumors are true. Higher-ranked Ruin beasts are conscious."
"They've always had awareness," Kairen said. "Just not human. Not language."
"So why speak now? Why to you?"
He shrugged, but his shoulders tightened slightly.
"I tore its core out. Maybe that was enough to make it talk."
Junah didn't buy that for a second—but she didn't push it. Instead, she sank onto the metal bench and rubbed her hands together, still cold from the Ruin Zone's unnatural chill.
"What did it say?"
"One word."
He looked her straight in the eyes.
"Soon."
Junah's face paled. She opened her mouth to respond—
—but the containment box shuddered again.
The runes flared with intense light as the core inside slammed against the container walls like a fist.
Junah leapt to her feet. "Why is it doing that?"
Kairen's jaw tightened. "It's responding to me."
He stepped back. Immediately, the glow inside the box dimmed slightly.
Junah blinked. "It's… drawn to your presence?"
"No." He shook his head slowly. "It's recognizing me."
Another tremor rattled the box.
Junah swallowed hard. "Recognizing you as what?"
Kairen turned toward her, eyes shadowed beneath the dim lights.
"As one of them."
He didn't flinch saying it. Didn't hesitate.
Junah took a small step back as the weight of his words sank in.
"You're not—"
"I'm not a Ruin Beast," he said firmly. "But the fragments inside me… they're Ruin in nature. The more I integrate? The more beasts I kill? The more cores I harvest?"
He tapped his chest once, over the sigil that burned faintly beneath his shirt.
"The more this… disorder grows."
Junah looked at the containment box. "Is it dangerous?"
"Yes."
"To you?"
"To everything."
The air grew heavier, the silence loud.
A sudden metallic buzz echoed through the outpost as the doors unlocked from the outside.
Junah startled. "Who else would be down here?"
Kairen didn't move. "Hunters."
The doors swung open. Three figures entered—wearing matching bone-plated coats, the emblem of the Ironhowl Division stitched on the shoulder. A powerful mid-tier hunting squad known for clearing Ruin tunnels and scouting deep anomalies.
Their leader, a tall man with silver hair and hard amber eyes, spotted Kairen immediately.
"Kairen Vale," he said with an unreadable expression. "Didn't expect to see you in this sector."
"Rovan," Kairen replied, voice flat. "I could say the same."
Rovan's gaze slid to the containment box.
"I heard District 17 spawned a Rank B anomaly. Our team was dispatched to confirm… but from the looks of it, you beat us to it."
Junah shifted uneasily.
Kairen didn't respond.
One of Rovan's subordinates, a woman with braided hair and an angular jawline, stepped forward. "Vale. I'm sensing a heavy concentration of Ruin energy. Did you really take down a Rank B solo?"
"Does that matter?" Kairen asked.
Her jaw twitched. "It does when you're bringing unstable cores through shared tunnels."
Rovan raised a hand, stopping her.
"No hostility. We're here to evaluate the situation."
His eyes flicked back to Kairen.
"And officially? To ask how you're still alive."
Kairen met his gaze with unimpressed calm. "Skill."
A ghost of a smirk touched Rovan's lips. "Or luck."
Junah bristled. "He saved the entire sector—"
Rovan cut her off. "I'm not doubting his result. I'm questioning the method."
His eyes sharpened.
"Because none of the corpses in your file looked natural. They looked consumed."
Junah froze.
Kairen's expression didn't change. "Then maybe your analysts need better training."
Rovan chuckled. "Maybe. But they've never misidentified Ruin consumption patterns before. You understand my concern."
Kairen gave no reaction.
Rovan stepped closer to the containment box. "Mind if we take the core for inspection? Protocol says—"
"No."
Rovan's smile faded. "It wasn't a request."
"It wasn't an offer," Kairen countered.
The air grew taut.
The two squads' power dynamics collided like drawing blades in silence.
Rovan's amber eyes narrowed. "You know, Vale… every hunter has limits. Every system has checks. When a hunter becomes too connected to Ruin essence—"
"I control the fragments," Kairen said quietly.
"But for how long?"
Junah stepped between them. "Enough. He isn't your enemy."
Rovan looked at her with mild curiosity, then back at Kairen.
"Keep your secrets then. But know this—when higher-ranked beasts return to District 17, you're not the only one they'll notice."
He motioned for his squad.
"We'll report that the area is secured. Stay alive, Vale."
The Ironhowl Division exited without another word.
The doors sealed behind them.
Only then did Junah let out the breath she'd been holding. "They don't trust you."
"They shouldn't."
The core thudded violently inside the containment box as if echoing his words.
After securing the outpost logs, Kairen sat on the metal bench, elbows resting on his knees, head lowered. Junah patched a cut on his arm quietly, though her hands trembled slightly.
"Tell me what's happening to you," she said softly.
Kairen remained silent for a long time.
Finally:
"When I entered the Zone tonight… something changed."
Junah looked up, eyes wide.
"When the Ruin Stag spoke, it wasn't just a voice. It was… recognition. Like it knew what's inside me."
"You mean the fragments?"
"Yes."
He touched the sigil on his arm. "Each fragment is a piece of a Ruin Beast's instinct, memory, and purpose. When I integrate them, I gain their strength—but also their nature."
"That's why you resist them so hard," she whispered.
"It's harder every time." He breathed in deeply. "Tonight, when I activated multiple fragments at once… I felt something else beneath them. A deeper connection."
"Like what?"
"Like they want to merge."
Junah's stomach dropped.
"M-Merge into what?"
"I don't know yet. But the more fragments I gather, the closer I get."
The core pulsed again, as though agreeing.
Junah's voice softened. "Does it hurt?"
"Sometimes."
"Are you scared?"
He didn't hesitate.
"No."
That answer made her chest squeeze.
"But I am cautious."
Kairen rose and walked to the containment box. "I need to stabilize the core before it corrupts the outpost wards. And before it calls something stronger."
"Calls?"
He nodded. "Rank B cores resonate with higher beasts. If I don't seal it, they'll track it."
Fear flickered across her eyes. "Then I'll help."
He looked at her, studying her determination.
"Fine. But keep your distance if the energy surges."
"I trust you."
He didn't say it aloud, but something in his stance softened.
Kairen opened the reinforced box slowly.
A wave of violet heat burst outward.
Junah shielded her eyes. "It's like standing next to a furnace!"
Kairen placed both hands on the glowing core. His sigil flashed gold beneath his sleeve, responding instantly.
Junah watched, trying not to panic as Ruin energy arced through the air like purple lightning.
"Kairen, stop—your arm—"
The skin along his veins darkened, threads of shadow crawling beneath his flesh like writhing ink.
He exhaled sharply, jaw clenched.
Focus.
Discipline.
Control.
The fragments inside him stirred violently, reacting to the Rank B presence—some with hunger, others with curiosity, others with instinctive fear.
The Ruin Stag Core fought against him, pushing waves of brute force into his hands. It sensed a compatible vessel—no, a competing one. The energy twisted around him, trying to devour his fragments or bind them.
Kairen gripped harder.
"Yield."
A command—not from instinct, but will.
The core flared blindingly bright, then darkened—as though bowing.
The crackling energy diminished.
The core's pulse steadied.
And the violet threads under Kairen's skin retreated.
When he finally released it, his hands trembled slightly.
Junah rushed to him. "Are you—"
He steadied himself with one breath. "I've stabilized it. But only temporarily."
"How long will it last?"
"A day at most."
"And after that?"
He closed the containment box slowly.
"Then I either integrate it…"
"Or?"
"Or destroy it."
Junah's throat tightened. "And what happens if you try to integrate a Rank B core right now?"
Kairen's eyes shifted to the box.
"…I might lose myself."
Before Junah could respond, the outpost sirens erupted into a shrill, piercing alarm.
Red lights flashed.
An automated voice echoed through the chamber:
"WARNING: MULTIPLE SIGNATURES DETECTED.
RANK C BEASTS… RANK B PRESENCE CONFIRMED…
ALL HUNTERS PREPARE FOR ENGAGEMENT."
Junah froze. "They tracked the core already?!"
Kairen grabbed his coat and blade. "No. This isn't from the core."
She blinked. "Then what—?"
A vibrating hum swept through the tunnel walls.
Kairen's eyes widened slightly.
"…Something stronger is entering the district."
The lights flickered.
The alarms distorted.
Junah whispered, "Kairen… what is that sound?"
He stepped toward the sealed doors, gaze sharp, posture alive with tension.
"It's not a Ruin Beast."
"Then what—"
"It's a Herald."
Junah gasped. "Those exist?! I thought they were myths!"
Kairen shook his head.
"Not myths. They're the ones who appear when a Crowned Beast takes interest in a hunter."
Junah's face went pale. "A Crowned Beast… noticed you?"
He didn't answer.
He didn't need to.
The tunnel beyond the outpost darkened—every light snuffed out at once.
A slow, deliberate knocking echoed on the steel door.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
The air froze.
Junah whispered, voice barely holding together:
"Kairen… what's knocking?"
He raised his glowing blade.
"A messenger."
The knocking stopped.
A voice—cold, distorted, ancient—spoke through the metal barrier:
"Hunter… the Crown has taken interest."
Junah stiffened.
Kairen didn't blink.
The voice continued:
"You carry what belongs to us.
Soon… the hunt begins anew."
Silence.
Not a breath.
Even the alarms stuttered and died.
Kairen tightened his grip.
Junah whispered shakily, "What do we do?"
Kairen stepped forward, blade angled downward, posture poised like a shadow preparing to strike.
"We hunt back."