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Chapter 14: The Gate Opens
The Gate of Shadows stood wide, light pouring from within. Ji Sok Han felt the hum of the four keys vibrating through his chest. Behind him, his friends stood silent, their wounds fresh but their eyes bright.
"Are you ready?" Seora asked.
"No," Ji whispered. "But I'll go anyway."
He stepped into the light.
Inside was not a battlefield—not a temple or throne—but a space suspended in time. Stars swirled around them. Moons passed overhead, and distant voices echoed like the wind through old pine.
A figure stood at the center.
It was Ji.
Or something like him—older, cloaked in pure white, hair silver, eyes endless.
"I am what you might become," the figure said. "What every Guardian must face. Not just darkness outside—but the one inside."
Ji stepped forward. "Then I'll face it."
A duel began—not with swords, but with truth. Visions of doubt, failure, guilt swirled around him.
He saw the boy he didn't save. He saw his mother calling out to him. He saw himself... falling.
But then—
He heard laughter. Felt Seora's hand. Heard Yeonhwa's battle cry. Saw Duri's grin.
And remembered: he wasn't alone.
"I don't carry the light alone," he said. "We all do."
The echoes faded. The stars calmed.
The figure nodded. "Then you are ready."
A final burst of moonlight erupted. When it faded, Ji stood alone in the center of the chamber, holding a crystal pendant shaped like a crescent moon—the mark of the true Guardian.
The others rushed in.
"You did it," Seora said, breathless.
Ji looked to the sky.
"I think... we all did."
But the peace didn't last long.
From the edges of the realm, a new shadow stirred.
Baek Rin's fall had awoken something older.
Something darker.
And it knew Ji's name.
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To Be Continued in Chapter 15: The Whisper Beyond the Veil