The northern winds howled like the dead as Do-hyun, Ji-hoon, and Lady Han approached the Ashen Maw, a fortress of rusted steel and bleached bones. The broken sword at Do-hyun's hip hummed softly, its whispers growing louder with every step.
"He knows we're coming," Lady Han murmured, her breath fogging in the frigid air.
Ji-hoon tightened his grip on his dagger. "Then we walk into his teeth."
---
The King's Welcome
The gates of the Maw stood open—a challenge, not an invitation.
Scavengers lined the walls, their eyes gleaming with hunger. At the center of the courtyard stood the Scavenger King, his massive frame draped in the pelts of frost wolves, the black halberd in his hands pulsing like a living thing.
"Little shadow," the King boomed, his voice echoing unnaturally. "My steel has been singing of your arrival for days."
Do-hyun's hand twitched toward his sword. "You serve the spirit?"
The King grinned, tapping the halberd's haft. "I serve the weapon that feeds me. And it hungers for Jin blood."
---
The Relic's Warning
As they circled each other, the broken sword's whispers sharpened in Do-hyun's mind:
"A counterfeit. A *thief's* tool. Break it."
The halberd's edge dripped black fluid, sizzling where it struck the snow.
"Your ancestors hid the true relics," the King spat. "This one was left behind—discarded. But it remembers. It hates."
First strike: The halberd shrieked through the air, carving a furrow of darkness where Do-hyun had stood.
---
The Duel of Echoes
The scavengers' cheers faded as the relics clashed, each strike ringing with ghostly echoes:
- The halberd's fury: "You abandoned us!"
- The sword's retort: "You were never ours!"
Do-hyun's petrified fingers cracked under the strain, black veins spreading up his arm.
Then— the sword's truth.
Vision:
- The halberd, forged from a shard of the original Jin weapons, buried in a mass grave.
- The Scavenger King as a boy, weeping as it whispered: "Kill, and never hunger again."
- The first life it took—his own brother.
---
The King's Fall
With a roar, Do-hyun drove the broken sword through the halberd's core.
The explosion of shadows revealed the rot beneath the King's power—his flesh withering where the weapon had fed on him for years.
"Liar," the King gasped, collapsing as the halberd crumbled to rust. "It promised… strength."
Lady Han stepped forward. "The bridge. Now."
The dying man laughed wetly. "Take it. The dead already walk there… and they're waiting for you."
As the scavengers turned on their fallen leader, Do-hyun stared at his blackened hand.
The sword's whisper was grim:
"The others will be harder to break."
---