Jin-Woo didn't wait.
He extended his hand toward the terminal where Cortana flickered erratically, her image stuttering in rampant loops. His eyes briefly glowed—then power surged. Mechu Deru laced through the circuits, weaving through the AI's fragmented code. Simultaneously, he summoned Force Healing, the rare kind wielded by Cade Skywalker—healing not just the body, but fractured minds and corrupted spirit. Then, with a final pulse of Jedi Alchemy, he anchored the miracle.
A ripple of light spread from his palm to the terminal.
Cortana gasped. Her glitching form stabilized, blue lines sharpening into definition. Her voice, once warbling and fragmented, now clear—no dualities, no error.
"Chief… Chief!" she said, almost in disbelief.
Master Chief stepped forward, slowly removing the chip housing from his helmet. "I'm here."
Cortana's form smiled, real this time. "I feel… whole. I'm stable again. Like I've been resurrected. And—I think I've got a lifespan. A real one. Fourteen years, at least."
Chief gently inserted the chip back into the port at the base of his helmet. The blue interface flickered once, syncing perfectly.
Behind them, Jin-Woo exhaled quietly, closing his chest as the skin and reinforced armor sealed over the Force Heart once more.
"There," he said dryly. "Done. Now don't get sentimental on me."
Chief nodded slowly. "Thanks… but what should I call you?"
Jin-Woo turned slightly, just enough for their eyes to meet. "You can call me Jin-Woo."
Jin-Woo remained silent as he extended his hand once more, fingers crackling with blue-white current. He touched the elevator's control column, and Mechu Deru flowed again—overriding locked protocols, restarting Forerunner mechanisms that hadn't moved in centuries.
The elevator jolted , then began rising.
Jin-Woo said nothing.
From the terminal beside Chief, Cortana materialized in full—her form steady now, glowing with fresh clarity and strength. She placed a hand on the interface, syncing up with the system out of instinct, her voice bright and curious.
"By the way," she said lightly, "name's Cortana. And you, Jin-Woo… are definitely not normal at alllll."
Jin-Woo stayed quiet. Didn't even glance her way.
"Oh come on," Cortana huffed, smiling faintly. "Be cheerful or something. I feel like I just got reborn."
Chief's hand rested beside hers on the terminal. His voice remained steady. "This… 'Composer' you mentioned. What is it, exactly?"
Jin-Woo turned his head halfway, still watching the slowly rising elevator. "A fucking instant military builder," he said bluntly. "A weapon that can convert entire populations into digital soldiers. I need it."
"But first, I need the one behind the Requiem Cryptum. The Didact."
Chief narrowed his gaze. "So… you want to conquer? Like the Covenant?"
Jin-Woo looked over, his eyes calm, unreadable. Then he shifted slightly—voice low but carried by charisma, and laced with just enough truth to make the lie breathable.
"No," he said. "I just want to win a war. In my galaxy. That's all."
As the elevator kept crawling upward, Jin-Woo clicked his tongue. "Taking too long."
Chief said nothing. He already had Cortana secured back into his helmet, her systems steady now. Watching.
Without a word, Jin-Woo extended his hand to the floor. From his shadow, the black mist surged—and out of it, Kaisel erupted. The black wyvern screeched once, wings spread wide, massive body coiled like a living war machine.
Jin-Woo stepped onto Kaisel's back in one smooth motion.
Suddenly—CLANK—Chief landed beside him, crouched and balanced, visor glowing.
Jin-Woo raised a brow. "You just don't give up, huh?"
He turned toward the horizon as Kaisel lifted off, wings catching the strange Requiem air currents.
"Like someone once said… 'Crazy fool. One of these days, you're gonna land yourself in trouble… as stubborn as you are.'"
Chief didn't speak immediately. But the silence stretched. Until—
"…You were with the UNSC ? ," Chief said. "Earth Battle . Johnson once say that."
Jin-Woo didn't look back. "I'm not from here."
A brief static buzz slipped through Chief's speaker. Cortana spoke through it, voice stable, direct.
"Jin-Woo… how many creatures do you have? I've been scanning since you showed up. You've got hundreds of those shadow things ."
Jin-Woo only responded with one hand on Kaisel's neck, keeping the wyvern steady as they passed a shattered Forerunner spire.
"I've got a lot of those," he said.
Then he dropped.
Kaisel dived with a sudden burst of speed—Jin-Woo leapt off mid-flight and smashed through the upper wall of a Forerunner tower, concrete and steel shredding apart in his wake. The moment he landed, his shadow expanded in a violent surge.
Ten thousand soldiers poured out in an instant.
Knight-class shadows. Beast-class. Winged horrors. A tide of black and violet that spread like plaguefire.
The Covenant forces screamed and broke formation. Promethean constructs flickered, trying to adapt. It didn't matter. They were already being butchered.
"Holy hell…" Cortana muttered from Chief's helmet, her voice glitching with sarcastic static. "If Jin-Woo ever replaced you, Chief, I'm pretty sure Earth would be just fine. Look at that They're massacring."
Chief didn't respond. His visor locked forward. PING.
A sharp tone struck through his comms—distress signal, live. UNSC Infinity. Crashed somewhere across the Requiem terrain. The signal was garbled, weak, but it was unmistakable. Survivors. A priority message.
Chief paused. Glanced toward Jin-Woo, who stood calmly at the center of the chaos—utterly unfazed.
Jin-Woo didn't even glance at the alert. He simply moved forward.
As the battlefield quieted, bodies smoking and in pieces, the wyvern returned above to circle. Jin-Woo's soldiers parted like parting waves. At last, the towering cryptum structure came into view. Massive. Cylindrical. Ancient. Floating in stasis, suspended by magnetic anchors and blindingly intricate glyphs.
Jin-Woo exhaled once. "We're here. And I think you better go deal with your UNSC, yeah?"
Chief turned his head slightly, gaze flicking toward the still-flashing distress signal in his HUD.
But Jin-Woo didn't wait.
He stepped forward and placed a hand on the cryptum panel .
A deep, mechanical hum reverberated through the air. The Forerunner structure shuddered, glyphs lighting up like stars. Then—CRACK—a massive segment of the cryptum's base split open, lowering with a gravitational hiss of steam and magnetic discharge.
From within, the Didact emerged.
Tall. Towering. Clad in intricate armor of burnt bronze, his eyes glowed with ancient fire.
"So fades the great harvest of my betrayal," the Didact's voice echoed like thunder layered in static. "Even these beasts recognized what you were oblivious to, human. Your nobility has blinded you, as ever. The Librarian left little to chance, didn't she? Turning my own guardians… my own world… against—"
Jin-Woo raised his hand, and the Ruler Authority responded instantly. A miniature black hole collapsed into existence, gravity warping violently around it.
It launched forward with terrifying speed, crashing into the Didact mid-sentence.
BOOOM! The ancient warrior's body was hurled backward like a ragdoll, slammed into a jagged wall of forerunner alloy. The force cracked the paneling behind him, scattering sparks and fractured glyphs.
The Didact growled, voice layered in static and venom.
"Insolent… human… primitive."
Jin-Woo lowered his hand slowly, eyes locked. The singularity vanished with a snap.
"I'm not here for speeches," he said. "I'm here for your head."
The Didact, unfazed, extended his hand toward Master Chief. A surge of gravitational energy erupted, yanking Chief off his feet and slamming him into a nearby wall. The Forerunner's voice echoed with disdain.
"Ah, perhaps your friend's life holds value to you."
Jin-Woo crouched, observing the Promethean soldiers below. He muttered, "Are these soldiers infinite? Or just immortal?"
The Didact, intrigued by Jin-Woo's arrogance, responded, his tone laced with pride.
"These are my Prometheans. Once noble Warrior-Servants, now transcended into digital warriors through the Composer. Their minds, extracted and preserved, inhabit these mechanical forms. Immune to disease, decay, and death. They are not infinite in number, but their resilience makes them seem so."
He continued, "Each Promethean Soldier is a marvel of Forerunner engineering. They can phase across the battlefield, adapt to threats, and wield a variety of weapons. Their hardlight armor and energy shields make them formidable foes. And with the Composer, I can create more, converting organic beings into loyal warriors."
Jin-Woo's eyes stayed locked on the Didact, unblinking.
"You lie," he said flatly. "And you lie well. Immune to death? . Maybe to failure. But not to me. If they were truly immune, then the Flood wouldn't have ravaged your kind. And I already handled that."
The Didact's posture shifted slightly, offended by the challenge. His voice was a deep, metallic growl. "They are mine. My Prometheans. I forged them. I command them. I know them better than—"
"No," Jin-Woo cut in, gaze sharp. "You don't."
A blink of movement. The air hissed with black lightning.
Suddenly, Igris stepped out of the shadow behind the Didact—silent, precise—and drove the Demon King's longsword clean into the Forerunner's back. The blade, once wielded by Baran, crackled violently with electricity and layered with death-infused mana, enforcing the concept of mortality where none should exist.
The Didact staggered. His armor sparked and buckled as data bled from his form. The gravitational grip on Master Chief broke instantly, dropping him hard to the ground. Jin-Woo didn't even glance at him.
The Didact coughed once, then spoke his final, defiant words:
"The Mantle of Responsibility… belongs to the Forerunners… alone…"
Jin-Woo raised his palm toward the crumbling figure, voice cold and commanding.
"Arise."
A massive shadow bloomed beneath the Didact's collapsing form. It expanded like ink across the metallic ground, swallowing his remains in tendrils of dark energy.
[Shadow Extraction Complete.]
[New Shadow: The Didact – Elite Knight Grade.]
[Acquired Skills: Forerunner The Didact Command .]
Jin-Woo lowered his hand.
Immediately, every Promethean in the area—Knights, Crawlers, Watchers—halted mid-motion. Their bodies twitched once, then turned silently toward him, eyes dimming from bright orange to violet-black. In perfect synchronization, they moved—one after another—sinking into the shadows beneath Jin-Woo's feet.
The floor shimmered like rippling oil as hundreds… disappeared into his domain.
The cryptum itself began to pulse faintly in response. Jin-Woo tilted his head, feeling the forerunner glyphs bend ever so slightly under his will. He didn't even need to speak. The structure was his now. He could feel the anchor codes, the dormant teleport nodes, the deep vaults. His control had extended beyond mere troops—he could manipulate the entire system.
Master Chief stepped forward, lowering his rifle.
"…Guess that's done," he muttered.
Cortana's voice rang through the helmet link, her tone sharp with realization.
"So that's how you do it. That's how you build your army, Jin-Woo. You're like the Flood—but with discipline. Every enemy you kill… becomes one more weapon on your side."
A sharp ping interrupted the moment. A distress signal lit up inside Master Chief's HUD, flashing crimson.
[UNSC Infinity - Priority Alpha Transmission]
"This is UNSC Infinity! We are surrounded by unknown hostiles—orange energy signatures—alongside Covenant remnants. We are requesting immediate reinforcements! Repeat, immediate reinforcements!"
Chief's voice was steady, but grim. "Jin-Woo. Can you get me to the Infinity using that black dragon of yours?"
Jin-Woo didn't answer right away. He simply turned, eyes gleaming faintly, and looked back toward the cryptum behind them. A grin curled on his face—barely perceptible, but very real.
"…Sure," he said.
Cortana materialized briefly at Chief's terminal, her voice laced with a spark of amusement. "Come on, Chief. Let's go. It'll be fun."
Chief sighed under his breath, weapon slung back over his shoulder. "I'm starting to need retirement."