The mountain city of Wuhon never truly slept.
Steam drifted through its narrow alleys, mixing with incense smoke from the shrine markets. Lanterns swung from crooked poles, their red light painting the mist like spilled blood.
Jaewon and Sumi moved through the crowd with their hoods drawn. The Yin Hunters' insignia on Jaewon's shoulder earned him more glares than greetings. Rumor had already arrived before he did the cursed hunter from the west.
They stopped at a tea-house overlooking the river. Inside, a single informant waited, a girl no older than sixteen, one eye blind and milky. She bowed low when Jaewon entered.
"Master Han said you'd come. The second Seal… it beats beneath the old temple district. But the place isn't empty."
"Fang Sect?" Jaewon asked.
She shook her head. "Worse. The ones they couldn't kill they've started calling themselves the Moon Remnants. They feed off both blood and Qi."
Sumi frowned. "Half-breeds."
Jaewon nodded once. "Then we finish this before nightfall."
The Hunters Arrive
They reached the temple quarter as dusk fell. Broken shrines leaned against one another like drunks; every wall was carved with faded moon sigils. The air felt heavier the deeper they went thick with the metallic tang of old blood.
Sumi drew a talisman, and it burned blue. "Qi interference everywhere."
Jaewon placed his palm on the ground. Beneath the stone he felt the rhythmic thrum like a heartbeat. The Seal.
"We're close."
A whistle sliced the air. He ducked instinctively, an arrow shattered against the wall behind him.
Figures emerged from the shadows, faces covered with bone masks. Their Qi was wild, unstable half human, half something else. The Moon Remnants.
"Hunters," one hissed. "Your blood hums like ours."
Jaewon unsheathed his blade. "Then you know how this ends."
They attacked all at once. The street erupted in chaos flashes of Qi, talismans igniting like fireworks. Sumi spun, her talismans forming a barrier of burning light; Jaewon moved through the openings she created, cutting with precision. Every strike was a rhythm breath, pulse, death.
But the Remnants didn't fall easily. Each drop of their blood that hit the stones steamed and re-formed, birthing new shadows.
Sumi shouted, "They're multiplying!"
"Then we burn them all."
Jaewon gathered Yin Qi into his palm and slammed it into the ground. The shockwave rippled outward, blasting through the alley. Dozens of Remnants disintegrated but the force cracked the pavement, revealing stairs leading down into blackness.
The pulse grew stronger below.
They descended into the dark. The air was damp, the walls lined with skulls some human, some not. Strange murals covered the ceiling: hunters and vampires bowing to a crimson moon.
Sumi lit her lantern. "This isn't a tomb," she whispered. "It's a memory."
Jaewon felt it too whispers scraping against his thoughts, thousands of voices overlapping.
Heir… blood of night… open the gate…
He staggered, clutching his head. "It's calling."
"Jaewon!"
He pushed forward. The tunnel opened into a vast underground hall a cathedral of bone and obsidian. In its center pulsed a sphere of crimson light suspended over an altar: the Second Seal.
And standing before it, hands clasped behind his back, was Lord Baek.
He looked nothing like the feral vampires Jaewon had fought. His hair was silver, his robes black silk, every movement deliberate. His eyes glowed faintly red, but his smile was almost kind.
"Welcome, Heir of Varos."
Sumi raised her blade. "Step away from the Seal!"
Lord Baek chuckled softly. "Always so direct. Do you know, child, that your Order was built by us? The Yin Hunters were once the First Fangs vampires who turned against their creator."
Jaewon's jaw tightened. "Lies."
"Truth," Baek said. "We taught humans the first Qi paths. We forged the blades that slay our kin. And when Varos fell, we buried our own blood beneath these mountains."
He gestured toward the Seal. "This is not a prison. It is a remembrance. Touch it, and you will see the world as it was meant to be."
Jaewon hesitated. The crimson light pulsed like a heartbeat in his chest.
Sumi whispered, "Don't listen. It's feeding on you."
"I know," he said but his feet kept moving.
Lord Baek's smile widened. "You cannot deny what you are."
Jaewon stopped an arm's length from the Seal. The whispers were deafening now, overlapping voices of the dead. Heir… finish the moon… awaken the blood…
He reached out.
The moment his fingers touched the light, the world inverted.
Fire consumed the catacombs. The moon above burned red. He stood not as Jaewon but inside another's body taller, stronger, wrapped in ancient armor. Below him, armies of humans and vampires clashed.
A voice his own, yet not thundered across the battlefield.
"Let the weak bleed; the strong will inherit the night!"
He saw Varos, the first immortal, hurling hunters aside like insects. And among the rebels the ones who turned against him he saw faces eerily familiar.
Sumi's. Master Han's. Jinwoo's.
All echoes of those first betrayers, reborn through bloodlines that never died.
Varos turned, meeting his eyes.
"My heir will finish what I began."
The Awakening
The vision shattered. Jaewon fell to his knees, gasping. The Seal cracked crimson light spilling like liquid fire. The catacombs shook violently.
Lord Baek spread his arms, exultant. "Yes… awaken!"
Jaewon looked up, eyes glowing crimson-silver. "You wanted the Heir?" His voice carried an inhuman echo. "Here I am."
He surged forward faster than he'd ever moved. His blade met Baek's in a scream of steel. Energy flared, hurling Sumi back. The clash sent shockwaves through the pillars; skulls rained from the ceiling.
Baek's laughter was pure delight. "Magnificent!"
Jaewon struck again, and again each blow heavier, fueled by both hunter's discipline and Varos's rage. He drove Baek back against the altar.
Baek caught the final strike in one hand. "Careful, heir. Every swing feeds the blood you hate."
Jaewon snarled and head-butted him. Bone cracked. "Then I'll make it choke on me."
He unleashed a burst of Qi that threw Baek across the hall. The vampire landed gracefully, lips bleeding but smiling. "Good. Hate it. That's how the transformation begins."
Cracks spider-webbed across the Seal. Light poured upward, punching a hole through the ceiling, out into the night above. The moon turned half-red.
Sumi staggered to Jaewon's side. "We have to go!"
He didn't move, eyes locked on Baek. "This isn't over."
"It never is," Baek replied, stepping back into the spreading light. "The next Seal waits, Heir. Find it… before it finds you."
He vanished.
The hall began collapsing. Sumi grabbed Jaewon's arm, dragging him toward the stairs. Stone rained around them as they burst out into the temple courtyard just as the ground caved in behind.
They fell to their knees, gasping in the cold night. The red half-moon burned above, its reflection rippling in the flooded streets.
Sumi looked at him, terrified. "Jaewon… your eyes."
He turned. For a heartbeat they glowed pure crimson and his shadow stretched on its own, flickering like a beast unchained.
Jaewon exhaled slowly, forcing the glow to fade. "I'm still me."
"Are you?" she whispered.
He looked up at the blood-stained sky.
"I don't know."