Chapter 161 — "The Pulse in the Ash"
The world was still burning when Ne Job opened his eyes.
Not loudly—no crackle of flame, no roar of collapsing sky—but with the soft, tired kind of burn that stayed after a divine battlefield had already eaten itself quiet. The ash fell in slow spirals, drifting like tired snow. The air tasted metallic. The Vein Rift above them pulsed gently, steadier now, like a wound that had stopped hemorrhaging but refused to close.
He sat up.
He instantly regretted sitting up.
"—OW—OW—OW—OW—OW—"
Every muscle in his celestial intern body reported a detailed injury memo.
Yue turned immediately. She had been crouched beside him, brushing ash off her sleeves with methodical annoyance. Her eyes widened.
"You're awake." Her voice softened, the faintest tremor escaping her practiced composure. "Finally."
"How long was I out?" Ne Job croaked.
"Not long," she said. "But also… too long. We didn't know if you—"
She cut herself off with a cough. "Never mind. You're fine. Mostly."
Arden stood a little distance away, arms crossed, her silhouette framed against the fractured sky. Her expression was somewhere between relief and the stern disapproval of a commander who had witnessed far too many stupid miracles for one day.
"Intern," Arden said. "Vital signs?"
Ne Job blinked. "…I can feel feelings. Does that count?"
"It's a start," Arden said dryly. "Try standing."
He did. His knees wobbled like wet tofu, but the ground stayed mostly where it was supposed to be. Yue stepped in and steadied him with a hand around his elbow.
He pretended he didn't need it.
She pretended she believed him.
Arden gestured toward the center of the blasted clearing. "Look."
Ne Job looked.
And everything inside him stopped.
---
The Fragment of Tomorrow
Suspended in the heart of the ruined chamber was the same crystalline shard that had nearly killed them—except now, it wasn't pulsing with hostile resonance. It was… calm.
Quiet.
Almost asleep.
Its once-jagged edges had softened, now shaped like a floating droplet of light. Faint circuits of divine glyphs looped inside its core like a heartbeat.
Yue frowned, arms crossed. "That shouldn't be possible. Fragments don't stabilize on their own."
Ne Job felt it in his chest—the same soft pulse, like it was calling to him.
"Did I do that?" he asked.
Arden hesitated. That alone was terrifying.
"…We believe," she said carefully, "that your resonance spike during the collapse forced the Fragment to bond to your signature."
Ne Job blinked. "Wait. Bond? As in—I OWN IT?? I get a Fragment?? Like, my own divine device?? Like a godly pet rock—"
Arden raised a finger.
"No."
Yue raised her own finger.
"Absolutely not."
He deflated. "Okay, okay, worth asking…"
But still—he couldn't help staring.
Something deep in him, something older than his internship, something tied to that persistent whisper of fate that kept stalking him… it responded to the Fragment like an echo coming home.
He stepped closer.
The Fragment brightened.
"Ne Job," Yue warned, "maybe don't touch the thing that nearly atomized you."
But he already had his hand out.
The crystal drifted forward like a creature recognizing its handler.
When his fingertips brushed its surface—
A heartbeat slammed through him.
His vision burst white. The sky, the ash, the Rift, all dissolved—
—and he was somewhere else.
---
Inside the Resonance
Not a memory.
Not a dream.
Something between.
Voices like distant bells. Shapes like half-formed shadows. A corridor of light, fracturing and folding into itself.
He was standing, but he had no body. He was breathing, but there was no air.
And ahead of him—
A faint silhouette.
Indistinct. Blurred. Built of color more than shape.
But undeniably familiar.
"…You again," Ne Job whispered.
The silhouette turned.
It didn't have a face—more like a smear of emotion sculpted loosely into a person's outline—but he felt recognition ripple through his chest.
The same presence he'd encountered inside the Resonance Breach weeks ago.
The same voice that always felt like an unfinished sentence.
"You shouldn't be here," the figure said—not in sound, but impression. "Not yet."
"Cool," Ne Job said. "I also wasn't planning on floating in a cosmic slideshow. But apparently I'm bonded to a Fragment now, which wasn't in my internship handbook."
A quiet pulse passed between them—something like amusement.
Then sorrow.
"Your path is accelerating," the figure said. "Faster than it should. The Rift is no longer waiting."
Ne Job swallowed. "Okay… so what do I do?"
The figure moved closer.
The Fragment pulsed behind it like a second heart.
"When the Fourth Vein opens," the figure murmured, "you must not face it alone. You will want to. You must not."
He frowned. "Why? Because I'm incompetent?"
A pause.
"No," the figure said gently. "Because you are not incomplete."
Before he could ask what the hell that was supposed to mean—
The world snapped.
---
Back in the Ash
Ne Job stumbled, gasping, the vision torn from him like a bandage ripped too fast. Yue was already grabbing his shoulders.
"Ne Job! Hey! Talk to me—what happened? What did you see?"
Arden stood ready, posture stiff, hand hovering near her Resonance Blade.
The Fragment hovered innocently beside him, as if nothing had happened.
He wiped sweat from his temple. "…Something. Someone."
Arden's eyes narrowed. "Someone inside the Fragment?"
"No," Ne Job said slowly. "Not inside. More like… connected. Like the Fragment is a doorway, and I took one accidental step through."
Yue's grip tightened. "And was this… entity hostile? Threatening? Did it try to manipulate you? Insert thoughts? Hijack your—"
"No," Ne Job said. "It warned me."
Both Arden and Yue exchanged a look.
That was never a good sign.
"What did it warn you about?" Arden asked.
Ne Job exhaled. "The Fourth Vein."
The air itself seemed to drop in temperature.
Even the ash paused mid-fall.
Arden spoke first. "…The Fourth Vein hasn't opened in recorded celestial history."
Yue added quietly, "If it does… every division in Heaven will be mobilized."
Ne Job looked at the Fragment hovering beside him like a silent guardian.
"It said I can't face it alone."
Yue huffed. "Good. Because you DEFINITELY aren't."
Arden cleared her throat. "Intern."
He straightened reflexively. "Ma'am?"
"You are to report your entire vision for debriefing. And until we determine the bonding parameters, you are not to be left unmonitored."
Yue smirked. "Lucky for you, I'm excellent at babysitting."
Ne Job groaned. "I'm not a baby."
"Mm-hmm." Yue tapped the Fragment. "Tell that to your new cosmic glowstick."
The Fragment chimed.
Like it was offended.
---
But Then—The Sky Shifts
A tremor rolled through the world.
Arden snapped her head upward.
Yue stiffened beside Ne Job.
Ne Job felt it first—not physically, but in the new thread of resonance woven into him by the Fragment. A tug. A ripple. A warning.
The Rift overhead darkened.
Then split.
Not wide.
Not violently.
But decisively.
A thin line of violet light cut across the heavens—straight, precise, like the surface of reality had been scored by a cosmic scalpel.
Arden whispered, "…Impossible."
Yue breathed, "That's a Vein signature."
Ne Job didn't need anyone to tell him.
He felt it in his heart.
As if the Pulse in the Ash had leapt awake inside him.
"The Fourth Vein," he whispered. "It's starting."
The line widened.
Light bled through.
The wind roared—
And somewhere inside the rupture, a distant, echoing melody drifted into the world, neither hostile nor gentle, but calling.
Calling him.
Yue grabbed his wrist. "Ne Job—don't you even THINK about stepping toward that!"
He didn't.
Because he couldn't move.
The resonance inside him froze every muscle.
Not with fear.
With recognition.
"…It's the same voice," he breathed. "The one from the Fragment. It's calling again."
Arden drew her blade. "We retreat to Anchor Command. NOW."
But the Rift pulse answered her—sending another tremor that knocked all three of them off their feet.
Yue rolled, shielded Ne Job instinctively with her arms.
Arden braced herself against the ground, eyes blazing.
The Fourth Vein's first tendril of light touched the world.
The Rift sang.
And Ne Job—just an intern, holding a Fragment that should not exist—felt destiny reach for him again.
This time, he reached back.
---
End of Chapter 161