The city stood frozen.
Children stopped laughing.
Merchants abandoned their stalls.
The joyous sounds of everyday life vanished beneath an impossible silence.
Everyone looked upward.
The sky...
Was breaking.
Not with lightning.
Not with fire.
Cracks spread across the heavens themselves.
Behind those fractures...
There was only endless darkness.
A deep horn echoed across the city.
BWOOOOOM!
Once.
Then again.
Soldiers rushed through the streets.
"To the walls!"
"Evacuate the civilians!"
"Move!"
The young Keeper stood unmoving.
His amber eyes reflected the fractured sky.
He whispered,
"...It’s earlier than expected."
Noah tried to move.
His body refused.
The memory held him in place.
He could only watch.
Sophia looked around in amazement.
"They can’t see us."
Damien nodded.
"We’re witnesses."
"Nothing more."
The city gates slowly opened.
Hundreds of armored warriors marched out.
Each radiated overwhelming power.
Their armor shimmered with ancient runes.
Their weapons glowed with mana so dense the air itself distorted.
Eric’s jaw dropped.
"...Those are humans?"
The sheer presence of the warriors surpassed anything the academy had shown them.
Then...
Seven figures walked through the army.
Every soldier stepped aside.
Heads bowed.
Not out of fear.
Out of respect.
The First carried a flaming spear.
The Second wielded twin blades wrapped in storms.
The Third held a crystal staff.
The Fourth rested an enormous greatsword on one shoulder.
The Fifth carried a silver bow.
The Sixth wore black armor that swallowed the light around it.
The Seventh...
The Keeper.
Noah stared.
"...There were really seven."
The young Keeper wore no armor.
No crown.
No weapon.
Only the rusted key hanging around his neck.
Exactly like Noah’s.
Suddenly...
The ground shook.
Not from footsteps.
From pressure.
An invisible weight settled over the city.
People collapsed to their knees.
Windows shattered.
Stone walls cracked.
The thing beyond the sky...
Was approaching.
Nobody could see it clearly.
Every attempt to focus on its form failed.
It shifted constantly.
Dragon.
Storm.
Ocean.
Nothing.
Everything.
Sophia grabbed her head.
"I can’t..."
"My eyes..."
Blood trickled from her nose.
Damien immediately looked away.
"Don’t stare at it!"
Even Noah felt his vision blur.
The moment he looked directly at the creature...
His mind rejected what it saw.
The Sixth warrior stepped forward.
Black flames erupted around his armor.
Without hesitation...
He charged.
The army roared.
Thousands followed.
The battle began.
What followed...
Didn’t look like war.
It looked like the end of a world.
Mountains split apart beneath sword strikes.
Rivers changed course.
Entire forests vanished beneath waves of mana.
The six legendary warriors fought like living disasters.
Yet...
The creature never retaliated.
It simply...
Continued descending.
The young Keeper remained standing behind them.
Watching.
Waiting.
Noah frowned.
"...Why isn’t he fighting?"
The answer came from the old fisherman’s voice beside him.
Though the memory continued...
The fisherman somehow stood outside it.
Watching with them.
"Because..."
"...that was never his role."
The six warriors unleashed everything they possessed.
The sky burned.
The earth trembled.
The seas rose.
Then...
One by one...
Their attacks disappeared.
Not blocked.
Not reflected.
Simply...
Erased.
Eric whispered,
"...Impossible."
The First fell.
Then the Second.
The Third.
The Fourth.
The Fifth.
The Sixth.
Not dead.
Defeated.
The creature had never taken a single step.
Only the Keeper remained standing.
The battlefield became silent.
The creature finally stopped descending.
Its countless shifting eyes settled upon the lone man holding the rusted key.
The young Keeper smiled.
Not because he believed he could win.
But because...
This was always his burden.
He reached toward the key around his neck.
Slowly...
He removed it.
Noah instinctively touched his own key.
It had become scorching hot.
The Keeper looked toward the impossible being.
Then quietly spoke words that no one else on the battlefield seemed to hear.
But Noah did.
Every syllable.
As though spoken directly into his soul.
"The gate shall remain closed..."
"...until another chooses to bear the burden."
The rusted key burst into brilliant silver light.
The memory began to collapse.
Cracks spread across the world.
The city.
The warriors.
The battlefield.
Everything shattered like glass.
Before the vision disappeared completely...
The creature finally spoke.
Its voice was neither male nor female.
Young nor old.
It echoed through reality itself.
"Then I shall wait..."
"...for the next Key Bearer."
Noah’s eyes snapped open.
He was back inside the pristine shrine.
Breathing heavily.
His heart pounded against his chest.
The rusted key had cooled.
But one thing remained.
A single silver rune...
Had appeared upon its surface.
It hadn’t been there before.
The old fisherman looked at Noah with quiet understanding.
"...Now..."
"...you know why the key was never meant to be lost."
The shrine was silent.
The vision had ended.
Yet its weight remained.
No one spoke.
Even Eric, who usually broke every tense moment, stood quietly staring at Noah.
The silver rune etched into the rusted key glowed faintly.
Then...
It disappeared beneath the rust.
As though it had never existed.
Sophia finally found her voice.
"...What did you see?"
Noah took a slow breath.
"History."
He looked toward the old fisherman.
"Not a legend."
"...History."
The fisherman nodded.
"Most people confuse the two."
Damien folded his arms.
"The six warriors..."
"They weren’t kings."
The fisherman smiled.
"No."
"They became kings."
Squad Seven exchanged confused glances.
"The world remembers them..."
"...because they survived."
His smile faded.
"But history forgot the man..."
"...who made survival possible."
Noah instinctively touched the key again.
"The Keeper."
The old man nodded.
"He chose a burden..."
"...that no one else could."
Eric scratched his head.
"So..."
"Did he seal that monster?"
The fisherman was quiet for several moments.
Then...
"No."
Everyone froze.
"He delayed it."
The words echoed through the shrine.
"It wasn’t defeated."
"It wasn’t destroyed."
"It wasn’t imprisoned forever."
The fisherman looked toward the shrine’s ceiling.
"It simply..."
"...agreed to wait."
Noah remembered the final words from the vision.
"...I shall wait... for the next Key Bearer."
A chill ran down his spine.
"So..."
Noah spoke carefully.
"It was waiting..."
"...for me."
The fisherman met his gaze.
"No."
He gently shook his head.
"It has waited..."
"...for every Key Bearer."
"Every?"
Sophia whispered.
"There have been others."
The fisherman answered.
"Some carried the key for decades."
"Some only for days."
"Each inherited the burden."
"Each eventually disappeared from history."
Damien frowned.
"The academy never recorded them."
"Correct."
"They erased themselves."
Eric blinked.
"...Why would anyone do that?"
The fisherman looked at the flowing river outside.
"Because..."
"...the world deserved to remember its heroes."
"...Not its sacrifices."
Silence filled the shrine.
The wooden sparrow fluttered onto the empty pedestal.
It looked toward Noah.
Then bowed its head.
Suddenly...
The entire shrine trembled.
RUMBLE...
This time...
Far more violently.
The underground river surged.
Blue flowers bent beneath a powerful wind.
Luna immediately drew her daggers.
"...Something’s coming."
A loud crack echoed through the underground forest.
CRAAACK!
The old fisherman’s expression became serious.
For the first time...
His calm smile disappeared.
"They’ve found the wrong shrine."
Noah’s eyes narrowed.
"...Who?"
Before the fisherman could answer...
An explosion thundered from somewhere above.
Stone dust rained from the ceiling.
A second explosion followed.
Closer.
Eric tightened his grip on his spear.
"...That’s not natural."
The fisherman slowly closed his eyes.
"They’ve broken the seal."
Another violent tremor shook the shrine.
One of the white pillars cracked down the middle.
Sophia’s mana sense expanded instinctively.
Her face instantly lost all color.
"Noah..."
"What?"
"...There are people outside."
"How many?"
She swallowed.
"...At least..."
"...fifty."
Fifty.
Damien’s expression darkened.
"Bandits?"
The fisherman slowly shook his head.
"Worse."
The shrine doors burst open.
Cold wind roared through the hall.
Footsteps echoed beyond the entrance.
Disciplined.
Measured.
Military.
A voice rang out from outside.
"Search every chamber!"
"Find the Key Bearer!"
Noah’s eyes narrowed.
"They know I’m here."
The fisherman looked directly at him.
"No."
"They’ve always known."
He placed a hand on Noah’s shoulder.
"They were simply waiting..."
"...for the key to awaken."
Outside...
Boots marched across the shrine courtyard.
One by one...
Figures in black cloaks surrounded the entrance.
Each wore a silver mask with no facial features.
Across every cloak...
Was embroidered the same ancient symbol Noah had seen in the Keeper’s vision.
A broken circle...
Surrounding seven stars.
Their leader stepped forward.
He removed his hood.
His face was young.
Far younger than Noah expected.
His silver eyes swept calmly across the shrine doors.
Then...
He smiled.
"After centuries..."
"...the Key Bearer has finally been found."