The narrow streets of Seoul were as black as memory. That night, the air felt heavier, each breath a burden, every sound a dark omen. Yeon Jin ran, lungs on fire, boots pounding the pavement with desperate fury. His leather coat was soaked by the fine rain that had been falling for hours, but he couldn't afford to slow down.
Behind him, four shadows drifted like specters. No words. No shouts. Only the faint clatter of reinforced boots and glints of steel barely visible in the dark.
Jin knew who they were. Their name whispered through the abandoned districts: **the Sepulchres**. Agents of the **Entropy Council**, dispatched to eliminate any bearer of the Codex. And Jin… didn't even know what the Codex truly was—only that his mother had died to pass it on.
He turned sharply, diving into a dead-end lined with rusted fences. The smell of mold and old blood clung to the walls. He had fought here once before. He remembered. But this time… it wasn't a fight—it was an execution.
He finally stopped, heart pounding like a war drum. The pendant around his neck was pulsing softly, almost like an alarm.
Jin turned, gripping the black blade he'd stolen from his former mentor. It wasn't perfect, but it cut. And for Jin, that was enough.
The Sepulchres halted a few paces away, slowly, threateningly. Their crow-shaped masks looked carved from ash.
One of them spoke.
"Yeon Jin. Bearer of the Codex Primordia. You are an anomaly. The Council does not tolerate errors."
Jin spat on the ground.
"If I'm an error, why send four blades to kill me?"
Silence.
Then they all drew their swords.
Jin's throat tightened. He wasn't ready. He never had been. But a part of him… wanted this confrontation.
He screamed and charged.
Steel hissed. Bodies moved with terrifying speed. Jin blocked as best he could, each strike threatening to shatter his bones. He pushed one back, slid his blade along another's arm, slicing through muscle. But he couldn't hold out long.
A blow to his ribs. A flash of agony. He staggered backward, gasping. His vision blurred.
And then—she appeared.
A figure perched atop a rooftop. Dressed in a black coat trimmed with silver, hair braided into a single gleaming strand, her gaze as cold as the city itself.
Mi Rae.
She leapt, landing softly on the pavement. The Sepulchres froze.
"This ends now," she said simply.
With a flick of her arm, she unleashed a translucent wave of energy. Two assassins were hurled into the wall like dry leaves in a storm, erupting in light. Jin's eyes widened.
He had seen artifacts, enchantments… but never something so pure.
Mi Rae approached.
"You held your ground well, Jin."
"How… do you know my name?"
She smiled faintly.
"I've watched you since childhood. Your mother was part of our circle… before the fall."
Jin stepped back, torn between pain and confusion. His shoulder was bleeding. The pendant around his neck now glowed faintly.
"What is this? This Codex… Why me?"
Mi Rae placed her hand over the pendant.
"It's not technology. It's a **living memory**, an entity etched into your lineage. The Codex Primordia doesn't choose—it responds to despair… and to will."
"You speak like a prophet…"
"No. Like a survivor. And I'm offering you a choice: keep running alone, bleeding, breaking—or come with me and learn to fight for something greater."
Jin hesitated. The remaining Sepulchres rose again, rage burning in their eyes. But his body refused to obey.
He dropped to his knees, the world spinning around him.
The pendant ignited.
A pulse.
Then a voice echoed in his mind.
Codex recognized. Initial activation. Partial seal broken. Deploying memory vectors...*
Jin groaned.
Agonizing heat surged through his core. His blood vibrated. Bones cracked. A force he couldn't comprehend unfolded within every fiber of him.
Then—light faded.
He rose to his feet.
His gaze was different.
Mi Rae nodded.
"The awakening. You've broken the first barrier."
He stared at her, trembling.
"What… am I now?"
She stepped closer and whispered:
"Someone who can break the rules. And maybe… rewrite fate."
Flashback: The Day of Silence
Years earlier, Yeon Jin was a child in a crumbling orphanage near the industrial fringe. People said he was born during an eclipse, that his mother died shielding him from something unseen.
He never understood.
But he always kept the pendant—etched with symbols no monk, no scientist, no hacker could decode.
One evening, an old man named Sagan approached him.
"You're marked, Jin. But it's not a curse. It's an invitation."
"An invitation to what?"
"To survive… differently."
Then the man vanished. And soon after, Jin saw masked figures lurking near the orphanage.
That was the night he began to run.
Back to the Present
Mi Rae opened a portal—not digital, not mechanical. A rift in the air, like a shattered mirror carved into reality.
"It's time, Jin."
"Where does it lead?"
"To the place where your legacy takes shape. The Chamber of Silences**. There, you'll face your memory… and your oldest enemies."