The sky rumbled again, but Zayen kept moving.
He and Rhea ducked into a shattered parking structure, its concrete walls trembling with every explosion echoing through Seoul. Fires burned in the distance, and the red glow of drones still searched the streets.
"Here—down this way," Zayen whispered, helping her into a shadowed corner behind a collapsed pillar.
"I'll find a medkit or—something."
He turned to run—
And stopped cold.
There was someone standing at the entrance.
Tall. Cloaked. Masked in silver.
Zayen took a step back. "Y-You're one of them…"
The figure raised its hand.
In an instant, black tendrils of smoke burst from the shadows and wrapped around Zayen's body, lifting him into the air like a puppet.
"Zayen of Seoul," the figure said in a voice that echoed unnaturally, like a whisper across dimensions. "The Queen has requested your presence."
"What—? Let me go!" Zayen struggled, but the shadows only tightened.
Rhea tried to move, to scream, but another figure appeared behind her, placing a finger to her lips. "Do not interfere. He is marked."
Marked?
Zayen's eyes widened as a faint symbol glowed on the back of his hand—one that hadn't been there before.
A crown made of flame.
And then, without warning, the shadows swallowed him whole.
---
Somewhere Else...
Zayen fell through darkness. Endless, silent, suffocating.
Then—light.
He crashed onto stone, coughing, surrounded by a cold, eerie glow. The sky here was black and full of stars… but it wasn't the night sky of Earth.
He was no longer in Seoul.
He was in the Underworld.
Before him stood towering gates, twisted in black vines and burning silver fire. A throne awaited at the far end of the hall.
And on that throne...
She sat.
Queen Ashtara.
Pale skin that shimmered like moonlight, raven-black hair cascading behind her like a river, and eyes—violet and ancient—that stared directly into his soul.
"You're… Zayen," she said, rising slowly. Her voice was soft, yet carried the weight of galaxies.
"Why does fate cling to you so tightly, I wonder?"
Zayen backed away. "Who… are you?"
She smiled—and in that moment, the chaos of Seoul, the monsters, even his power—all of it—felt small.
"I am the one who tore open your skies," she said. "And now that I've found you... you are mine."
---