Chapter 56: Chapter 56

"Meaning we’re trapped here, protected but controlled, meanwhile Crucible is still preparing the ritual, Min-seo is being hunted, and in forty-seven hours, something terrible happens whether we like it or not." Ji-yeon leaned forward. "We can’t just sit here."

"What do you suggest?"

"I suggest we leave, tonight, find Min-seo and help her evade Serpent’s Fang, then the three of us hit the Daedalus before convergence." Her eyes were hard and determined. "Sink it, kill everyone aboard. End this."

"That’s not reasonable."

"So is waiting here hoping the Association saves us." She stood. "I didn’t survive fifteen years on my own just to die passive, if I’m going down, I’m taking Crucible with me."

Yoo observed her, fifteen years old, possessing the dark Series seed, shadow manipulation. She’d escaped Crucible once already through skill and determination.

Not helpless, not weak.

If anything, to some extent dangerous.

"How do we leave? The Association has Diamond-ranks guarding us. Spatial locks on every exit."

"My shadows can bypass spatial locks. They don’t move through space—they move through absence, different principle." She pulled darkness into her palm, let it pool. "I can get us out, question is: are you coming?"

Yoo thought about it.

Staying meant safety, protection, but also helplessness to an extent, waiting for others to solve problems, didn’t sit right with him.

Leaving meant danger, but also agency and control over his own fate.

Akasha Archive, probability of survival if we stay versus if we leave.

"Staying: 67% survival probability. Leaving: 34% survival probability. However, leaving increases probability of preventing ritual manifestation from 45% to 71%."

So better odds of stopping the Serpent, and worse odds of living through it.

But if the Serpent manifests, survival odds drop to near zero anyway.

"I’m coming," Yoo said. "But we need weapons, supplies, and information on the Daedalus’s current location."

"I can get those, my shadows can slip through storage rooms. Nobody notices what they don’t see." Ji-yeon moved toward the door. "Get ready, we’ll leave at midnight when shift change happens, guards are most distracted then."

Yoo lay down and cosed his eyes, this time he really had to think about this choices he was making.

There are forty-seven hours until convergence, twelve hours until escape, thirty-five hours to find Min-seo, reach the Daedalus, and sink it before the ritual begins.

The time-gap seems impossible.

But I’ve survived impossible before.

He opened his eyes, stared at the ceiling.

Hold on, Dad, wherever you are, I’m coming...eventually.

But first— He sat up I have a Serpent to kill.

Itaewon District - Safe House - 11:47 AM

Min-seo found the address the mysterious woman had given her.

A old apartment building, five stories high, looked like it had been scheduled for demolition twice but kept getting delayed.

She climbed to the third floor, knocked on the door marked 3-B.

It opened immediately.

Chen Wei stood there. "You’re late."

Min-seo pushed inside. "How did you—you’re supposed to be in Association custody."

"I was, for about six hours, then I left." Chen Wei closed the door, locked it, three separate locks. "Turns out they’re not great at holding people who really want to leave."

The apartment was really small, one room, kitchenette, bathroom, but at least it was clean, stocked with food, water, medical supplies.

"You’ve been busy," Min-seo said.

"While you were running from Serpent’s Fang, I was preparing." Chen Wei gestured at a table covered in maps and tablets. "I have the Daedalus’s real-time position, satellite tracking, updated every thirty minutes."

She pulled up a display, the ship was anchored forty-six kilometers offshore, not moving.

"They’re preparing for the ritual early, setting up equipment, positioning recipients." Chen Wei highlighted the ship’s deck. "Five recipients aboard, all contained in the lower holds, heavily guarded."

"With what? We don’t have a boat, we don’t have underwater equipment, we’re only two people against a ship full of Gold and Platinum-ranks." Chen Wei’s smile was sharp. "So no, not alone."

"Then why show me this?"

"Because I got a message twenty minutes ago, from inside Hunter Association." She played an audio file.

Ji-yeon’s voice: "This is Subject 31, subject 47 and I are escaping Association custody tonight at midnight, we’re going after the Daedalus, if you want to help, meet us at Incheon Harbor. Pier 7. One AM. Come armed."

Min-seo stared at the tablet. "They’re children."

"They’re seed recipients with nothing to lose, same as us." Chen Wei began packing gear. "And they’re right, the Association won’t move fast enough, if we want to stop this, we do it ourselves."

"That’s still suicide."

"Probably." Chen Wei loaded ammunition into magazines, efficient, a ritual that has been practiced for years. "But I’d rather die fighting than wait for the Serpent to kill me anyway, at least this way, I choose how I go out."

Min-seo looked at the weapons, the maps, the impossible plan.

Then she started loading her own magazines.

"Pier 7. One AM. I’ll be there."

"Good." Chen Wei’s grin widened. "Let’s go kill a god."

Hunter Association - Medical Wing - 11:58 PM ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ ꜰʀᴏᴍ novel★fire.net

Yoo stood by the window, just watching.

Below, patrol routes, guard rotations, Diamond-ranks positioned at every major exit.

But they weren’t watching the ventilation system.

Too small for adults, but a two-year-old body—even one that appeared eight—could fit.

"Ready?" Ji-yeon whispered behind him.

She pulled shadows around them both, it’s absence causing people’s eyes slide past them, and bains dismissing them as irrelevant.

They moved into the corridor, walked past a guard who looked right at them and saw nothing.

Into the maintenance access, through the door, down the ladder.

The ventilation shaft was tight, dark, Yoo’s broken fingers was still doing what it did best as he pulled himself through, he ignored them.

They crawled, metal echoed every movement, but quietly and carefully.

Ten minutes of crawling.

Seoul stretched before them, lights, buildings, somewhere in that sprawl, Min-seo was hiding, and offshore, the Daedalus hadn’t moved yet

Between dimensions, the Serpent coiled, patient.

"Let’s go," Yoo said.

They descended into the city.

The clock was running.

Forty-six hours until convergence.

Time was against them.