The word "Monarch" was not just spoken. It was an event.
It resonated in the steel of the building, in the plasma of the troopers' rifles, in the very bones of every person on that rooftop. It was a title claimed with such absolute, cosmic authority that for a moment, the universe seemed to have no choice but to agree. The crown of shadows swirling above Sung Jin-Woo's head was not a trick of the light; it felt like a fundamental truth of reality that had, until now, been kept hidden.
The pressure emanating from him became a physical force, a gravity well of pure, annihilating intent. The weakest troopers on the roof collapsed, their suits' life support systems screaming as their lungs refused to draw breath. The reinforced concrete of the rooftop began to crack and splinter under the sheer strain of his aura. The entire military base, a fortress of humanity's finest technology, was groaning as if it were about to be pulled apart at the seams.
He wasn't attacking. He was just existing at a fraction of his full power, and it was unmaking them.
Mina Ashiro felt her vision swim. Black spots danced in her eyes. It was only her raw willpower, the same iron core that had made her a Commander, that was keeping her conscious.
Jin-Woo's attention, however, was no longer on them. His threat had been sent. His point had been made. His gaze was fixed on Kafka, whose body was now almost fully healed under the impossible, gentle light of his magic. The catastrophic burns were gone, replaced by fresh, new skin.
With the healing complete, Jin-Woo stood up, his movement a silent, fluid motion. The shadow crown above his head dissolved. The soul-crushing pressure receded as instantly as it had come, leaving behind a ringing silence and the acrid smell of ozone and fear. The sudden release was so jarring that several people gasped, their lungs finally working again.
He looked down at the unconscious Kafka one last time.
Then he turned to the two warriors he still held captive. With a thought, the shadow tendrils holding Hoshina vanished, dropping the Vice-Commander unceremoniously to the roof. The telekinetic grip on Kikoru's axe disappeared, and she stumbled forward, the sudden release of pressure making her lose her balance.
They both stared at him, panting, their minds still reeling from the display of absolute power.
"He is in my debt now," Jin-Woo said, his voice returning to its cold, neutral tone. His gaze lingered on Kikoru for a moment. "I saved his life, a life you failed to protect. When he awakens, he will understand what this means."
A debt. Not to the Defense Force for finding him. Not to Mina for trying to save him. A debt to the Monarch who had reclaimed his 'property'.
"My business here is done," Jin-Woo stated. He then looked directly at Mina, a final, chilling instruction in his eyes. "Do not mistake my inaction for peace. Your organization, your entire species, is alive right now for one reason only: because you are currently more useful to me as a distraction for the Architect than you would be as corpses. Do not make me reconsider that calculation."
He took a step back, and his body began to dissolve into the large shadow cast by a ruined communications tower. It was not a fast teleportation; it was a slow, deliberate fade, a final demonstration of his mastery over the darkness.
"Wait!" Kikoru cried out, finding her voice. The word was a desperate, unplanned reflex. "What are you?! Are you a Kaiju?! Are you… a god?!"
The last vestiges of Jin-Woo, his glowing violet eyes, lingered in the shadow for a moment. A final thought, not spoken aloud but projected into the minds of everyone present, was his only reply.
[I am the hunter that gods fear.]
And then he was gone.
Silence. Utter and complete.
For a full minute, the rooftop was a frozen tableau. Hoshina slowly got to his feet, checking his blades, but his eyes were distant, replaying the non-fight over and over in his mind. Kikoru stared at the shadow where Jin-Woo had vanished, her body trembling not with fear, but with a profound, earth-shattering sense of awe.
Mina Ashiro was the one who broke the spell. She looked away from the empty space, her focus returning to the only thing that mattered in that moment.
"Medics!" she roared, her Commander's voice returning, sharp and clear. "I need a team on this roof now! Bring a stasis pod! Full bio-containment protocol!"
Her order shocked the troopers out of their stupor. Radios crackled to life. People began to move, their actions frantic, desperate to impose some sense of order on a situation that had defied all logic.
Hoshina walked over, sheathing his blades. "Commander," he began, his voice low, "that… entity…"
"Was Sovereign," Mina finished, her voice grim. "And he just confirmed everything we feared, and more. He is not a Kaiju. He is not something we can fight. He is a force of nature."
"And the Architect…" Hoshina continued, looking at the sky. "Is a being capable of orbital strikes, willing to sacrifice its own pawns to assassinate our leadership." He then looked down at the still unconscious Kafka. "And this poor bastard is caught right in the middle of their war."
Kikoru walked over, her face pale, her axe held loosely in her hand. "He… healed him," she whispered, staring at Kafka's perfectly whole, though still unconscious, form. "And he spoke of my energy… That it came from him. What did he mean?"
No one had an answer. The questions were piling up, each one more terrifying than the last. They had stumbled out of their own war and into a cosmic feud between beings of unimaginable power.
Medics finally swarmed the roof, their white suits a stark contrast to the blackened devastation. They carefully placed Kafka onto a floating stasis gurney, enclosing him in a shimmering blue energy field. His designation as a threat had been, at least for the moment, eclipsed by his actions and the arrival of a far greater power.
As they wheeled him away, Mina stood up, looking out over her ruined base, at her terrified soldiers. Her expression was hard as diamond. The fear and awe were being compressed, forged into something else: resolve.
Sovereign had given her a warning. He had called her species a useful distraction. He thought he had left them cowering in fear. He was wrong.
He had made a critical mistake. He had shown them the true scale of the game. But he had also, in his arrogance, shown them his own investment. Kafka Hibino. The one "toy" he seemed unwilling to lose.
And that made Kafka Hibino not a monster to be dissected, not a traitor to be executed… but the single most valuable, and dangerous, strategic asset on the planet.
"Hoshina," Mina said, her voice like ice. "Tell your ATU the mission has changed. We are no longer just hunting the Jumper."
She looked at the stasis pod carrying her oldest friend away.
"We're protecting him."