Joon-won could still feel the weight of the name, Gwanryeon hanging in the air like an unshakable presence. Even as the st remnants of corruption slithered back into the shadows, something lingered. A silent watcher, a presence that hadn’t vanished entirely.
Haneul stood still; her gaze locked onto the carved image of the queen. The golden glow of the crystal reflected in her dark eyes, but there was something deeper in her expression. Something distant.
She had said the queen was still out there.
Joon-won clenched his fists, his mind racing. Was that even possible? If the civilization had been erased, its people lost to time, how could she have survived? Was she trapped somewhere, lingering as a ghost of the past, or had she truly endured?
Min-jae broke the silence first. “This pce is dangerous.” His tone was sharp, ced with an urgency that Joon-won hadn’t heard before. “We should leave. Now.”
Joon-won turned to him. “You felt it too, didn’t you?”
Min-jae’s jaw tightened. He wasn’t the type to entertain unknowns, but even he couldn’t deny what they had just witnessed.
“The corruption reacted to that name,” Min-jae said. “It wasn’t random. It knows what we’re trying to uncover.”
Joon-won nodded. “And it doesn’t want us to.”
Haneul finally looked away from the carving. “That’s why we need to keep going.”
Min-jae frowned. “Haneul—”
“I understand the risk,” she cut in. “But we were brought here for a reason. The moment we stepped into this pce; we started something. If we leave now, it won’t stop. The corruption won’t stop.”
Joon-won studied her. There was something in her voice; an unshakable certainty.
She wasn’t just guessing.
She knew.
“How do you know this?” he asked quietly.
Haneul hesitated.
Then, softly, she answered, “Because I’ve seen it before.”
Silence.
Min-jae’s eyes darkened. “What?”
Haneul’s fingers curled against her palm. “I don’t remember when or how, but I’ve seen this pce before. I’ve… dreamed of it.” She turned to the golden crystal. “And I think it remembers me too.”
Joon-won felt the tension shift. Min-jae’s grip on his sword tightened slightly, but he said nothing.
Joon-won took a slow breath, letting the weight of her words settle. Haneul had spoken of strange dreams before, but this was different. This wasn’t just a vision. It was a connection.
To this pce.
To the queen.
To the past itself.
And if she had seen it before, then maybe…
He gnced back at the crystal, feeling its faint warmth radiating through the chamber. The corruption had reacted violently when they spoke the name Gwanryeon. It feared something here.
And that meant there was something worth finding.
Joon-won took a step forward, his decision made. “Then we keep going.”
Min-jae muttered a curse under his breath but didn’t argue.
Haneul nodded.
Without another word, they pressed deeper into the ruins.
.. ..
The path ahead was narrow, carved into the stone itself. Faint traces of golden light still pulsed along the walls, though they flickered erratically, as if struggling to hold onto what little power remained.
Joon-won moved carefully, senses on high alert. The deeper they went, the colder the air became; not the kind of natural chill found underground, but something unnatural. A cold that seeped into the bones, cwing at the edges of his mind.
The corruption hadn’t left.
It was waiting.
Min-jae walked beside him, his sword drawn, muscles tense with anticipation. Haneul followed closely; her expression unreadable.
Then, suddenly—
The passageway widened, revealing another chamber.
But this one was different.
Unlike the ruins before, this chamber wasn’t empty.
It was filled with statues.
Joon-won slowed, his breath catching as he took in the sight. The figures were lined in perfect rows, stretching across the massive hall, each one carved from smooth, dark stone. They were humanoid in shape but eerily featureless, as if their identities had been stripped away.
But what sent a chill down his spine was their posture.
Each statue was kneeling.
Head bowed.
As if in prayer.
Or submission.
Min-jae exhaled sharply. “What the hell is this?”
Joon-won stepped closer. The statues were ancient, their surfaces worn by time, yet there was something unnervingly lifelike about them.
Haneul knelt beside one, running her fingers along the surface. “They weren’t just statues,” she murmured.
Joon-won frowned. “What do you mean?”
She looked up at him, her voice quiet.
“They were people.”
A heavy silence fell.
Joon-won felt his stomach twist.
“They were turned into this?” Min-jae muttered.
Haneul nodded. “It’s not just erosion. The stone… it feels like something solidified them. Trapped them.”
Joon-won’s mind raced. What kind of power could do this? The corruption devoured everything it touched, but this; this was something different.
Then, he noticed something else.
At the far end of the chamber, past the kneeling statues, stood a single figure.
Unlike the others, this one wasn’t kneeling.
It stood tall; its face obscured by time. But there was something familiar about its shape.
Joon-won approached carefully. His heart pounded.
As he stepped closer, the flickering golden light illuminated the base of the statue.
There was an inscription.
Faint, almost lost to time—
But still there.
Joon-won’s breath caught.
It was a name.
Not Gwanryeon; but something else.
A name that had been hidden, buried beneath time itself.
His fingers traced the ancient letters, his voice barely above a whisper.
“Seoha.”
The moment the name left his lips, the golden light fred.
And the statues moved.
A deafening crack echoed through the chamber as the kneeling figures began to shift, their stone limbs twitching as if awakening from centuries of sleep.
Min-jae cursed, raising his sword. “Joon-won!”
But Joon-won barely heard him.
Because in that instant, as the statues stirred, a voice; soft, distant, yet achingly familiar; whispered through the air.
“…You remembered.”
The chamber trembled.
The statues turned.
And Joon-won realized—
They weren’t just waking up.
They were watching him.
.. .. .
