The silence did not last.
Jin-Woo took a single step forward, and the world responded.
It was subtle at first.. like the shifting of sand in the wind. The crumbling ruins around him seemed to shudder, the very air growing thick, heavy with unseen weight. Then came the sounds. Low, drawn-out creaks of metal bending under unseen pressure. The distant echo of something dragging itself from the earth.
Jin-Woo turned his head, eyes narrowing.
Across the ruins, movement rippled through the forgotten remnants of the Lands Between. Shadows stretched unnaturally, twitching as if struggling to rise. And then, they did.
Figures pulled themselves from the dust.
Some barely human, their bodies wrapped in decayed cloth, faces obscured by rusted helms. Others bore the twisted remnants of once-proud warriors, clad in armor shattered by time, their blades corroded but still sharp.
Hollows.
He had seen beings like these before.. the mindless undead, remnants of warriors who had lost everything. But there was something different about these creatures.
They were not simply lost souls. They were bound. Shackled to something greater than themselves.
The Greater Will.
Jin-Woo exhaled slowly. The moment his foot had touched the ground, he had felt it.. the air rejecting him, as though his very existence disrupted the fragile order of this realm.
A sick sort of amusement curled in his chest.
The world does not welcome me.
Good.
The dead moved.
The first knight charged without hesitation, dragging its rusted sword behind it. Its body moved not out of instinct, but as though something unseen was pulling its strings.
Jin-Woo did not move.
The shadow beneath him twitched.
A single tendril lashed forward.
It struck the knight's chest, and in an instant, the creature froze. Its body trembled, fingers twitching as if trying to resist. Then...
Crack.
Its bones fractured, then shattered. Its form collapsed into a heap of dust and rusted metal, the last remnants of its cursed existence fading into the wind.
Silence.
Then, a sound.
A roar... low and guttural, filled with hatred.
The second knight did not hesitate. It raised a shield, sword glinting in the unsettled golden light. Unlike the first, this one did not charge recklessly. It tested the ground, shifting its stance, analyzing its prey.
Jin-Woo's gaze sharpened. This one was different.
Stronger. A warrior who had not yet forgotten.
The knight lunged.
A blur of red.
The strike never landed.
Before the knight could even blink, a crimson-cloaked figure had moved.. silent as death itself.
Igris.
The knight hesitated. Not out of fear, but because its body had stopped responding.
A thin, black line ran from its shoulder down to its waist.
Then, its body split apart.
No blood. No scream. The pieces fell to the ground, the knight's soul vanishing into the void.
Igris took a step back, lowering his sword. His crimson cape fluttered, unstained by the battle.
Jin-Woo barely spared the fallen a glance. His attention was elsewhere.
The air had changed.
Something was watching.
A presence, vast yet hidden, brushed against his senses like a whisper in the dark. It was not the Greater Will. It was something lesser. Something sent to observe.
A slow breath left his lips.
"So, that's how it is?"
No response. Only the heavy hum of an unseen force lingering just beyond his reach.
Jin-Woo flexed his fingers. His shadows pulsed beneath him, responding to his unspoken command.
If this world wished to test him...
Then he would return the favor.
He stepped forward. And the Lands Between trembled.
And in that moment.... The Lands Between Breathe
The world was wrong.
Jin-Woo could feel it in the air, in the way the very fabric of reality shifted around him like a tide caught between two unseen moons. The Lands Between pulsed with a heartbeat that was not its own.. an oppressive, lingering presence that seeped into its soil, its skies, and its people.
Yet, it was silent.
The silence of something vast, omnipresent, and watching.
Jin-Woo stood at the edge of a crumbling cliffside, gazing over an expanse of golden mist and withered ruins stretching beyond the horizon. The Erdtree loomed like a god's monument, its radiance a piercing contrast against the decay infesting the land beneath it.
But the glow… it wasn't warmth. It was judgment. A will imposed upon everything that lived and died under its gaze.
And that will was resisting him.
His fingers flexed, a ripple of shadow pulsing through his form. His very existence was like a foreign body inside a beast.. the Greater Will felt him, and it rejected him.
"Tch." Jin-Woo exhaled sharply, rolling his shoulders. Fine. Let it try.
The land could hate him. The gods could resist him. He would still carve his path through this world.
.....
The Black Blade Hunts
A sound. A whisper of wind against steel.
Jin-Woo's gaze sharpened. A presence. A predator.
He shifted, shadows twisting around his feet as something emerged from the ruins below.. a figure wreathed in darkness, moving like a beast on the prowl.
It wasn't just any foe.
Maliketh, the Black Blade.
A legendary hunter, a devourer of destinies. Even in the depths of Jin-Woo's instinct, there was recognition.. this was no ordinary enemy.
The black-furred beast of a warrior stood upon the stonework, his blade gleaming with deathly radiance. Maliketh's eyes locked onto Jin-Woo, burning with something ancient. Something hungry.
Jin-Woo could almost hear the unspoken words behind that gaze:
"You do not belong here."
A slow smirk crept onto his lips. Neither do you...
The Black Blade moved first.
The world lurched.
Maliketh's body twisted into a blur of motion, and in the next instant, death itself came screaming toward Jin-Woo.
Darkness Against Destinies
CLANG!
The Black Blade struck. A curse-ridden arc of ruin carved through the air, but shadows coiled and hardened, intercepting the strike. The force sent tremors through the earth, shattering stone beneath Jin-Woo's feet.
He slid back, but only a step. Beru materialized behind him, hissing. Igris stood at his side, blade already drawn.
Tank growled low, the ground trembling beneath the beast's presence.
Jin-Woo exhaled, the familiar heat of battle simmering beneath his skin.
"You're fast," he acknowledged, rolling his wrists. His voice was calm, but his shadows stirred. "But let's see how long you last."
Maliketh didn't respond with words. He didn't need to.
He lunged again, blade raised. And this time, the battlefield became a storm.
The Greater Will Stirs
As the clash unfolded, unseen forces rippled across the Lands Between.
Above the Erdtree, golden light flickered.
Far beyond mortal perception, something stirred.. a will ancient and absolute. It had noticed.
The presence that had rejected Jin-Woo before now turned its attention fully upon him. It did not act yet.
But it watched.
And soon, it would make its move...
Because an anomaly that will threaten his rule..
Had descended..
(A/N: What jin-woo meant by neither do you when talking to maliketh...
It is a form of saying that he belongs to his shadow)