Min-chan's footsteps halted.
His gaze settled on the small shrine in the forest, beyond Dam-bi's shoulder.
A very old place.
Faded roof tiles and
crumbling stone walls,
a half-leaning wooden door,
all quietly bathed in warm sunlight.
Silent,
like a place that had waited for someone for a very long time.
"This is it…"
Min-chan pushed through the wild grass and
quietly stood before the shrine.
Beyond the old wooden door,
sunlight streamed through a hole in the ceiling.
Light and shadow intertwined,
dust motes floated—
and a sense of desolation, quietly spread.
Dam-bi opened her mouth.
"…Let's go in."
Without hesitation, she
gently took Min-chan's hand—
and stepped through the leaning wooden door.
Inside, it was silent, as if holding its breath.
In one corner of the ceiling, a thin spiderweb shimmered like silver in the sunlight,
and on the floor, a few dry bundles of straw were scattered, as if an animal had rested there.
Min-chan quietly murmured.
"It seems… no human touch has reached here for quite some time."
Dam-bi slowly began to speak.
"It couldn't be helped.
Long ago, the survivors were chased by Huangdi—they fled…
Memories were trampled,
and names were erased one by one."
Min-chan said nothing, silently watching her.
Dam-bi kept her gaze on the shrine, continuing in a whisper.
"Even so…
Someone survived to the very end.
There was someone who remembered you, Chiyoo.
That person…
must have collected remnants and left behind this small shrine.
With the hope that it wouldn't be forgotten.
Wishing to preserve at least…
the name of the Guryeo Clan's last hero, Chiyoo."
Min-chan looked at the red mask of a goblin statue, dusty and faded, hanging on one wall.
Then, he reached out his hand to the broken bronze sword
placed on the small altar and
slowly brushed away the dust.
On his roughly rubbed fingertips,
old iron dust and ancient memories mingled.
A moment of silence.
He murmured lowly.
"…What's the big deal about such relics.
Honoring someone—
It's not like it saves a living person…
They should have just lived well."
Hearing those words, Dam-bi let out a small laugh.
"Pfft.
That's so you, Gang Min-chan."
She let out a small breath and
took a step forward.
"Still, you came all this way.
A long way around, very far.
So…"
Her gaze lingered on the altar.
"Say hello to your fallen brethren.
And boast a little—
tell them you became the world's strongest champion."
Min-chan firmly closed his lips and briefly shut his eyes, as Dam-bi smiled faintly.
"Then I'll go prepare a ritual for your brethren."
Min-chan stood still for a moment, eyes closed,
in the sunlight filtering through the roof tiles.
Dam-bi carefully walked to one side of the shrine.
Her fingertips caressed a stone bowl placed beside the altar,
and she quietly parted her lips.
"Water… fire… and wind."
As if following a sequence known for ages,
Dam-bi placed leaves and earth on a small piece of cloth.
A low, quiet breath, as if calling something, flowed from between her lips.
At that moment—
The silence that filled the shrine
very subtly, yet warmly…
spread like ripples.
Dam-bi quietly stood up beside the altar.
"Alright, it's done.
Let's go back down now."
Then, she suddenly
pointed to the red mask hanging on one wall and
the broken bronze sword on the altar.
"…But are you… leaving those behind?"
Min-chan stared at the two relics for a long time, then
slowly shook his head.
"Yeah. I have to leave them.
Because what can't be changed, must remain in the past."
His voice was calm,
but his eyes held a firm resolve.
"As fighter Gang Min-chan,
I will make the name 'Chiyoo' known to the world.
The distorted name and time…
I'll reclaim them."
Dam-bi watched him for a moment, then
silently nodded.
Meanwhile, in the clearing in front of the mountain cabin, where training was underway—
"Min-chan and Dam-bi… they're too late. They didn't run into a wild animal, did they?"
Tae-geon glanced at his watch and mumbled.
Sang-cheol, arms crossed, said nonchalantly.
"Don't worry. The world champion didn't get his title by playing tta-ji-chi-gi. He'll handle a bear just fine."
At his words, Young-ho and Young-beom, the Twin Tigers, simultaneously grinned.
"Do-yoon, aren't those two playing lovey-dovey, comrade?"
"Oh, what a lovely time they're having."
The corners of their eyes curved like crescent moons.
Heo Do-yoon said seriously.
"If you want to die by Min-chan hyung's hand, die together. Don't drag me into it!"
Kim Gap-su watched the scene from a distance,
and with only a slight lift of the corners of his mouth, said.
"…Min-chan will do fine whatever he does.
You guys worry about yourselves."
Behind their playful laughter—
A strange ominousness was approaching.
Behind their playful laughter—
Somewhere,
a strange ominousness was seeping in.
[Clink… Clink… Clink…]
A low, metallic tremor.
From afar, it was a heavy sound, as if echoing from deep within the earth.
"Huh? Just now… did you hear that?"
Do-yoon asked, craning his neck.
Kim Gap-su closed his mouth and slowly rose from his seat.
He narrowed his eyes, gazing beyond the forest.
"Isn't that Dam-bi noona? She carries a bell around, doesn't she?"
"…No."
Tae-geon said lowly.
"That sound… it's not light.
A bell 'tings'…
This is deeper… heavier."
Everyone stopped talking and listened.
Somewhere in the forest, that strange bell sound was
still—
spreading slowly and thickly.
[Clink… Clink… Clink…]
As the group watched the forest, the surroundings became enveloped in a thick mist.
A phenomenon impossible to occur simultaneously with bright sunlight.
As the sound grew closer,
everyone held their breath.
Even the sound of someone swallowing
faded as if absorbed by the forest—
And as if even the wind had stopped,
an eerie silence fell.
At that moment.
Right behind the forest,
a long silhouette cut through the thick mist,
stopping at the edge of the fog.
"Chiyou zai na'er!"
(Where is Chiyoo!)
From the edge of the mist,
a sharp, high-pitched female voice burst out.
The sound stung the ears like a needle,
and the birds in the mountains took flight all at once.
The Twin Tigers simultaneously bared their teeth.
"What did she say? Just now… didn't she say 'Chiyoo,' comrade?"
"You heard her just now, right, muttering 'Chiyoo'?"
Tae-geon frowned.
"Why is she looking for Chiyoo in Chinese…?"
It was then.
Through the thick mist—
A figure slowly began to emerge.
Captivating dark eye makeup.
A black qipao gently embraced her skin,
and her long hair flowed down neatly as if combed.
In her hand,
a small golden bell, like something from a Jiangshi movie,
and a hexagonal black wooden box
engraved with the Eight Trigrams of Yin and Yang.
The moment her toes touched the ground—
The mist spread as if alive.
As if the world itself twisted beneath her feet.
"Chiyou zai na'er!"
(Chiyoo… where is he!)
She slowly scanned the group,
and then, once more, cried out sharply.
The Twin Tigers bared their teeth and
lightly thumped their thumbs against their chests.
"Comrade lass,
you came here knowing we were Chiyoo, didn't you?"
Young-ho's face had a hint of a smile, his eyebrows raised,
but his eyes held a taut tension, as if about to snap.
Heo Do-yoon backed away, speaking quietly.
"…Hyungs, no matter how I look at it… this isn't a joke."
At that moment—
The shamaness lightly shook the golden bell.
[Clink…]
What reverberated was not just a metallic sound.
The sound bypassed the ears,
and directly pierced—his heart.
Thump.
Thump.
Thump.
His chest pounded, as if struck by a hammer.
Tae-geon gritted his teeth and shouted.
"Cover your ears! That's not just a bell!"
But it was too late.
Kim Gap-su and Park Sang-cheol simultaneously
clutched their chests and staggered—
then fell to their knees.
As if suffocating,
they lowered their heads, gritting their teeth.
At that moment.
The corners of the shamaness's mouth slowly curled upward.
An expression of satisfaction.
And—
She slowly murmured to herself.
『…If it's taken again this time,
how elegant… will that expression be.』
---
At that time—
Min-chan and Dam-bi were slowly descending from the shrine.
The sunlight was extraordinarily warm,
and the forest path was filled with the scent of wild grass and the sound of the wind,
as quiet as a morning when nothing had happened.
Min-chan scratched the back of his neck with one hand and said.
"…Isn't something funny?"
"What?"
"After talking about those things in the shrine…
I feel strangely light. Strangely, relieved."
Dam-bi looked at his profile and
quietly smiled.
"Yes. You've let it go.
The past you couldn't protect, and that you held onto."
Min-chan nodded.
"The past… can remain buried as it is.
Now, it's our turn to create the future."
Dam-bi didn't reply to his words,
only smiled faintly and matched his pace.
On both their faces,
there was a calm serenity
that only those who had finally shed a long-held burden could possess.
However—
At the mountain cabin they were returning to,
'something' was already
quietly, and like a fatal dagger,
waiting.
"…Huh?"
Min-chan narrowed his eyes.
In front of him, the mountain cabin was visible,
and before it—a hazy mist was slowly drifting.
"It's midday… What kind of fog is this…"
He looked up at the sky.
The sunlight was still intensely pouring down.
A clear, blue sky.
Below it,
an inexplicable aura of mist
enveloped the front of the mountain cabin.
Min-chan instinctively took a step forward.
At that moment—
"Stop!!"
Dam-bi's cry burst out, tearing through the air.
"Let's… go back."
Her face had instantly turned ashen white,
and her eyes were wide, gripped by fear.
Her hands, trembling slightly, were clenched so tight that blood seemed to stop flowing.
"What are you talking about? We're almost there."
His gaze was unwavering.
But in Dam-bi's eyes,
there was 'something' that defied words.
"…What's in there?"
Dam-bi didn't answer.
She simply communicated 'danger' with her entire being.
[Clang…]
From somewhere—
A sound like metal clashing was heard.
Dam-bi whispered in a trembling voice.
"Min-chan… let's go back.
If we go now… you might die again…"
Min-chan, without turning his head, looked at the cabin and said.
"The gym people are in there.
I have to go."
At those words, Dam-bi's breath hitched.
She grabbed Min-chan's arm and cried out desperately.
"Then what about me?
All those long years…
Enduring all those auditory hallucinations, dreams, and burdens to get here—
What about me?!"
Her voice trembled,
and her eyes were already stained red.
Min-chan slowly turned around.
For a moment, he looked into her eyes.
And then—
Quietly taking a breath,
he placed a hand on Dam-bi's shoulder.
"Dam-bi…
Thank you for waiting for me.
But, new brethren are waiting.
Like the brethren who died before…
I… cannot turn away from them again."
At those words,
the strength silently drained from Dam-bi's hands,
which had been clutching Min-chan.
Her eyes were still trembling,
but he continued.
"So…
I have to go back.
For you,
for us,
and—for all of us in the future."
Min-chan carefully removed Dam-bi's hand.
She tried to say something—
but Min-chan shook his head, smiling faintly.
"Wait here."
And,
without hesitation—
he plunged into the mist.
[Whoosh—!]
Instantly, the air changed.
The clear and transparent forest path
transformed into a white, heavy curtain.
Visibility was less than an arm's length.
But Min-chan's footsteps were unwavering.
His heart pounded rapidly,
but within it was not fear—
But determination.
[Rustle…]
It was then.
In the hazy mist,
a silhouette moved quietly.
Min-chan instinctively lowered his stance.
And as he cautiously approached—
[Grrr….]
A beast-like sound
echoed from deep within a throat.
It was clearly… not human.
In Min-chan's eyes,
the faintly revealed 'figure' was—
a human body,
but it did not have human eyes.
As he took another step closer,
the face slowly turned.
Those eyes…
Were pure white.
The pupils were contracted like tiny dots,
and between the whites and the pupils,
an emptiness lingered, as if the soul had left.
That face was…
Lee Young-ho.
And,
beside him, another person with the same eyes, trembling their shoulders—
Kim Young-beom.
Both their eyes
simultaneously turned towards Min-chan.
"You crazy…!"
A gasp of shock involuntarily escaped Min-chan's lips, and his palms began to sweat profusely.
However,
before those words could even finish—
[WHAM!!]
The leaf-covered ground indented as Young-ho,
low to the ground, charged straight in.
Min-chan's body instinctively moved in response to the low tackle.
[Kuh-haak!]
As he pulled his left leg back and lowered his center of gravity,
grabbing Young-ho's neck and pressing him down, Young-ho shrieked and writhed.
[Thwack!]
Before Min-chan could recover from his bewildered emotions,
Young-min leaped up and slammed his knee into Min-chan's temple.
[Whoosh!]
Min-chan narrowly managed to insert his palm before the knee connected,
reducing the impact, and rolled sideways to regain his stance.
One of his ears rang deafeningly.
This was no simple Jiu-Jitsu sparring.
'These two are not opponents I can go easy on.'
The duo before him was now, definitively—
specters who had come to kill Min-chan.
The Twin Tigers positioned themselves on either side of Min-chan.
[Thump!] [Thump!]
Both charged simultaneously.
Though the brothers were moving like specters,
their movements bore the traces of long training.
[Whoosh!] [Thump!]
Young-ho's right hand flew straight towards Min-chan's face,
and Young-beom's low kick aimed for his thigh.
[Whirl!]
Min-chan twisted his body into the air,
spinning like a windmill to the left and dropping, evading the attacks.
The duo's attacks sliced through empty air.
[CRASH!]
As his head was about to hit the ground,
Min-chan braced his hands and squeezed out his remaining rotational force,
kicking Young-ho's face with his right foot.
[Thud—Thwack!]
A sound of falling backward, simultaneously landing.
Min-chan inhaled and immediately charged.
He dove towards Young-beom's waist, who had not yet recovered his stance.
[Grab—WHAM!]
A powerful tackle.
As soon as Young-beom's back hit the ground—
Min-chan's fist slammed directly into his face.
[Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!]
"Come back… snap out of it."
[Clink…]
At that moment,
the bell sound, which he thought had vanished, rang again.
[Grrrrr…]
[Stomp. Stomp. Stomp.]
Min-chan regulated his breathing and
firmly pressed his foot onto Young-beom's writhing chest.
He shook his bloodied hand,
and drops of blood splattered onto the ground.
"…Why are bad premonitions never wrong."
He slowly raised his head.
Before his eyes—another hell awaited.
Beyond the thick mist,
four figures slowly emerged.
Kim Gap-su.
Park Sang-cheol.
Kim Tae-geon.
Heo Do-yoon.
However,
their eyes were no longer human.
[Grrr…]
Pure white eyes, just like Young-ho's,
with pupils contracted like dots.
Shallow, long breaths.
Movements like beasts about to bite.
Min-chan stopped in his tracks.
"Damn it…"
His fists involuntarily clenched.
Cold sweat trickled down his spine from his neck.
But his eyes remained unwavering.
He knew now,
that he could not turn back.