The field was quiet again.Too quiet.
The kind of quiet that presses against your ribs, heavy with things unsaid.
The survivors huddled in the makeshift camp under the half-collapsed awning of the portable greenhouse. The air smelled of scorched soil and bitter mana — life and decay mixing like oil and water.
Jaehyun sat on an overturned crate, arms resting on his knees, staring at the single sprout he'd saved.It glowed faintly beside him, its fragile stem swaying with each breeze.Alive. Barely.
Hana moved around, checking on the wounded. One of the new recruits had a deep gash along his arm — Jaehyun crouched beside him, pressing a green-lit hand gently over the wound.
The skin began to knit back together, slowly but steadily.
"It'll scar," Jaehyun muttered."I don't care," the recruit said weakly. "You're still… amazing, sir.""Yeah," Jaehyun said flatly, "tell that to the vegetables I've killed this week."
He forced a chuckle, but it came out brittle.
Behind him, Bongyu snored softly in the shade, clutching a cracked watering can.The sight should've been comforting. It wasn't.
Something was wrong beneath the earth.He could feel it — that pulsing black mana, faint but constant, like something breathing underground. Waiting.
He didn't want to admit it aloud. Not to the kids. Not when they were all still shaken from the attack.But deep down, Jaehyun knew — this wasn't over. The vines weren't monsters. They were symptoms.
By nightfall, the others slept in patches of light cast by small aura lamps.Jaehyun sat awake, staring at the faintly glowing sprout.
Then a soft hum interrupted the silence — the communicator bead on his wrist pulsed with light.
He frowned, tapping it.
"Choi Jaehyun speaking. Please tell me this isn't another lecture about proper seed rotation."
The line crackled. Then, a strained voice — Commander Seo from the northern outpost.
"Jaehyun… I need you to stay calm.""Oh, good," Jaehyun muttered. "Always a great way to start bad news.""It's about your parents."
Jaehyun's expression dropped.The faint green aura around his wrist dimmed.
"What happened?"
"Their negotiation team was en route to the Capital Barrier when the convoy was pulled into a Red Gate. It manifested unexpectedly — high-level mana distortion, unstable readings. We've lost contact for the past six hours."
The world tilted slightly.
He didn't even realize he'd stood up until his chair clattered behind him.
"You lost contact? That's my mom and dad! The Light Awakener and the Wind Guardian—how do you lose them?!"
"We're doing everything we can. The Gate is sealed. Until it stabilizes, we can't attempt a retrieval."
Jaehyun's throat felt dry.The green sprout by his boot pulsed faintly, almost as if responding to his heartbeat.
"...Copy that."
He ended the call before Seo could say anything else.
For a long moment, he didn't move. Didn't breathe.
Then he sat back down, burying his face in his hands.
When dawn crept over the camp, Jaehyun hadn't slept.
Hana found him still sitting there, elbows on knees, eyes blank.The sprout had wilted slightly beside him, drained from the night.
She crouched quietly.
"Sir… did something happen?"
He didn't answer right away. Then, softly—
"Red Gate.""Oh no… your—""Yeah."
Hana bit her lip. "Do you want to—?"
"No." His voice cracked slightly. "I can't. Not yet."
He rubbed his face, trying to shake the exhaustion from his voice, but the hollowness lingered.
"If I leave now, the kids will panic. If I stay, I might fall apart. So, naturally, I'll just… water something."
Hana smiled sadly. "Classic Choi Jaehyun."
He picked up the cracked watering can Bongyu had left behind. It leaked from the bottom — fitting, somehow.He walked to the edge of the camp, where the soil was still dark and cracked, and began to water the ground that couldn't drink.
The green light flickered again — faint, uneven.
"Come on," he whispered. "You've gotta grow. Somebody has to."
And somewhere deep below, the black mana stirred.
By midday, Jaehyun called a meeting.His voice was steady again — too steady.
"We're heading underground tomorrow."The others stared."Sir… underground? Into that?""Yeah. Something's rotting under us. I can't fix what I don't understand."
He tightened his gloves, eyes hard despite the exhaustion beneath them.
"And if I can't save my parents…" he said quietly, gaze falling to the sprout, "...then I'll at least save what they built."
A hush fell. Even Bongyu stayed quiet, clutching the watering can against his chest.
For the first time since the world burned, Jaehyun didn't look like the world's laziest Awakener.He looked like someone finally ready to dig deep — even if it meant breaking apart the earth itself.