Ashes and Tears

Five years ago, the sky tore open. Rifts bled monsters into the world—beasts beyond reason, nightmares given flesh. Nations fell. Borders vanished. Civilization collapsed into factions and fortified cities, clawing to survive a reality rewritten by cosmic horror. Amid the chaos, a new kind of human emerged—Hunters, awakened with powers no one understands. They are soldiers, mercenaries, and weapons in a war with no end. Ha Joon is not one of them. Or so he thinks. Plagued by memories he doesn’t trust and a name tied to shadows, Ha Joon is pulled into a brutal training program hidden deep within the forest. Overseen by Chi Long—an enigmatic woman whose discipline is as cruel as it is surgical—he is stripped of comfort, humanity, and choice. His only company: Eun Byol, a former idol kidnapped and thrown into the same nightmare, her spirit breaking as she’s forced to become something she was never meant to be. Together, they must survive Chi Long’s merciless tests, the monsters that lurk beyond the trees, and the truth buried in their blood. All while two names—Ash and Tears—haunt the edges of the world like ghosts. Whispers say they’ve seen the end. And it begins again with Ha Joon.