In the underground laboratory of NESIS, two cylindrical tanks filled with greenish liquid pulsed softly, reflecting the glow of holographic screens that displayed complex biometric data. Inside, Kael and Caius lay unconscious, their bodies connected to various cables and sensors.
A scientist stood before the main console, his eyes fixed on a resonance graph displaying energy fluctuations from the two subjects.
"Remarkable! Caius is showing abnormal synchronization with the artificial Singularir Core. Even though he's close to reaching Level 4, he managed to survive for 158 seconds in the integration simulation—far beyond any other candidate. That's a huge leap from a few years ago when he could only last 42 seconds. His body can naturally contain and stabilize multiple Fragments at once, making him the ideal vessel!" exclaimed a bespectacled male scientist.
He then shifted his focus to Kael's data.
His eyes widened with shock and fascination. "Kael possesses a rare dormant potential with non-linear Fragment resonance. The pattern is unstable, but incredibly promising. This resonance could serve as a natural biological catalyst for the Singularir system—triggering evolution in Fragments and stabilizing integration in other subjects… including Caius." He spoke, unable to hide his excitement from seeing both data sets.
___
Outside, Yeon walked calmly. Suddenly, a dimensional rift appeared before him, blocking his path. From the rift emerged a humanoid mantis-like creature: tall, its segmented insect-like body standing upright like a knight. Its sharp red eyes glowed menacingly, and its back sported black wings as hard as obsidian.
The creature immediately kneeled before Yeon.
"My king! Forgive me for disturbing your time on Earth. I come bearing grave news—the Abyss is in chaos. A being is attempting to force its way in. The realm is beginning to collapse, unable to withstand its power. We beg of you, my king—please help us! Our powers were sealed by you; we cannot do much. The only way left... was to come to you directly!" the creature pleaded reverently.
Yeon frowned. "Siron, go to the Abyss and handle the situation," he commanded, his gaze falling on his own shadow.
In response, Yeon's shadow moved on its own. Its eyes glowed blood red, accompanied by a twisted grin. A cloak of shadow wrapped around its tall form.
"With pleasure, my king. But before I go… may I ask—am I allowed to use my full power if things escalate?" Siron asked.
"Do as you wish."
"Kuh... Kuhahaha! Very well then. I'll clean this up quickly."
Siron instantly vanished, along with the creature that had arrived. The dimensional rift closed, as if it had never existed.
Yeon continues his walk towards NESIS headquarters. The symbol in his left eye—a chain and an inverted crown—glows brightly. He puts his glasses back on and teleports into the NESIS organization.
___
Heavy footsteps echoed throughout the corridors of the NESIS headquarters. The surveillance cameras exploded one by one, before they could capture the perpetrator's form. The atmosphere turned cold, because of the arrival of a figure with a tense atmosphere. Yeon had arrived at the NESIS headquarters.
In front of him, there were guards—twenty fully armed elites and vessels—appearing before him. They shot at Yeon, but Yeon suddenly disappeared, this surprised them all.
Without them realizing, Yeon appeared in the middle of them. His hands moved like a calligraphy artist on the battlefield. One turn of the wrist—the enemy's neck broke without a sound. With a spiral kick—three bodies flew, their sternums shattered, until they were unable to stand again.
Realizing that it was Yeon's doing, some of them immediately kept their distance, and the vessels immediately used their powers to create wind walls, electric fields, and invisible barriers. They were really wary of Yeon.
Seeing their efforts, Yeon smiled faintly.
Behind him, two symbols appeared. The first symbol, on the right—a black chain. Followed by the inverted crown on the left. Then the two symbols moved and merged, and created a new symbol until finally the new symbol disappeared.
Seeing the previous phenomenon, the troops were confused and silent for a moment.
The next second, the wind wall, electric field, and invisible barrier they created disappeared. This made them wonder. Then one of them suddenly screamed while holding his head, followed by the other members, they fell to the ground while clutching their heads.
"W-what is this?! I feel like a lot of information is entering my head .... This hurts!" Shouted one of the soldiers there
"Wh-why can't I use my abilities .... Arghhh, more and more are entering my head. What is really happening?!" Asked one of the soldiers who was still standing while holding his head.
Not long after, he also fell to the floor.
"Well... You can't do anything, all kinds of information in this world, no matter if it's foreign words or ancient symbols, all enter your brains. You won't be able to accommodate that much information. Moreover, I've blocked your access with your fragments so you can't do much, you're becoming more and more pathetic. The only thing in front of you, is death!" He said coldly.
Yeon passed by the soldiers who had died from the millions of information that entered their brains. He just walked past them without even glancing at them.
___
"Damn it! That guy really messed up my base!" shouted the furious old man as he watched Yeon's actions through the monitor.
Is this the one who ruined my plans back then? It seems so. He managed to defeat the second strongest unit after the Hexa Core. I didn't expect that kidnapping those two would backfire on me like this.
"There's no other choice! Hexa Core! I order you to eliminate the intruder!" he commanded.
"Yes, Commander. We will carry out your orders," one of them responded with a salute.
The five immediately departed to carry out their mission.
"I never thought I'd be forced to deploy NESIS's strongest unit. But it'll be worth it. That intruder will pay the price for interfering with me," he muttered with confidence.
The sound of rhythmic footsteps echoed through the ruins. Five individuals appeared before Yeon, each clad in matte-black tactical armor—not flashy, but clearly built for high-level combat.
These were not just elite soldiers—they were NESIS's specialized combat systems, programmed for top-tier operations. With a 96% resonance rate and classified as Level 6 (Symbiotic Entity), they stood at the peak of Level 6, bordering on Level 7.
They locked into position and formed a combat formation.
One of them, a large man and the leader of the squad, possessed gravity manipulation abilities—though not as strong as Caius. His weapon was a massive war hammer.
A woman with parallel lenses on her eyes had the ability to scan and analyze an opponent's movements based on real-time data.
A tall and slender man crackled with electricity—he could manipulate electrical currents.
A muscular woman wielded a shield as tall as herself, capable of reinforcing the defense of any weapon she wielded.
Lastly, a shorter man, expressionless and unarmed, possessed the ability to massively enhance his speed and physical strength.
Yeon stood before them calmly, without a trace of fear. The atmosphere was tense. No one made the first move. Both sides were waiting for the other to attack.
When no one acted, the leader decided to strike first. The woman with the shield charged at Yeon, attempting to bash him with it, but he dodged easily. Seizing the blind spot, the leader swung his hammer at Yeon, but Yeon stopped it with his bare hand. Shocked, the leader backed off, as did the shield-bearer.
"Target cannot be confirmed. All data on the subject is unreadable," reported the woman with the lenses.
"What?! Impossible! This is the first time Sightline can't read a target's information!" exclaimed the woman with the shield.
"Everyone stay alert! We can't access any data on him. That means we have to be extra careful—we don't know what abilities he might possess," the leader ordered.
Upon hearing this, the team immediately raised their guard.
"Voltspire, use your ability!" commanded the captain.
Voltspire nodded and released electricity around him, directing it toward Yeon.
But the attack vanished before it could reach Yeon. Everyone was stunned to see Voltspire's strike fail.
He tried again, this time with more intensity—but it was useless. All the electricity vanished before touching Yeon.
"Your ability's useless. Why keep trying?" Yeon mocked.
Suddenly, Yeon vanished from his spot and reappeared right in front of the shield-woman, ready to strike. She reacted quickly, bracing herself with her shield—but it was futile. Yeon's punch was too powerful, sending her flying.
"Impossible... Even Aegirun, with her top-tier defense, couldn't withstand that hit… What is this guy…?" she muttered in disbelief.
"Braylock! Watch out!" the captain yelled.
Yeon appeared in front of Braylock in a flash, swinging his fist.
Braylock's eyes widened. "I-impossible! What kind of speed is this?! He's suddenly right in front of me!" he hissed.
Still, Braylock managed to dodge the punch.
Yeon smiled as Braylock evaded the attack, then stepped back to create distance.
Everyone was shocked that Yeon suddenly retreated.
The captain decided to test his own power. "I haven't tried it yet—maybe a gravity-based attack will work."
He activated his ability to press Yeon down, but it failed—just like Voltspire's earlier attempt.
So that's it… I see now. Any attack using Fragment power disappears immediately…
"You've realized it? Took you long enough," Yeon said, seeing the captain finally understanding.
The captain's face turned pale in panic. He immediately ordered Aegirun, Voltspire, and Braylock to attack Yeon simultaneously.
They struck from all directions, surrounding him.
Yeon responded with a faint smirk.
Suddenly, all four of them froze in place, as if some invisible force had stopped them.
"W-what is this?! I can't move!" shouted the confused captain.
"I didn't even feel anything… then suddenly my body won't move… Is this a paralysis-based Fragment?!" said Aegirun, slightly panicked.
"Yes, you're right. This ability paralyzes you. When I want you paralyzed—you will be. I'm not like you, needing to activate your powers. My powers respond directly to my will," Yeon explained.
They were all stunned. This was the first time they had ever encountered a vessel whose abilities activated based purely on intent.
Then, their bodies began vanishing one by one. The captain, just before he could shout to Sightline, also disappeared.
"I told you… My ability responds to my will. You've been erased from this world because I willed it. That's the end of the game," Yeon said coldly.
Sightline collapsed to her knees, stunned. She couldn't believe they had been defeated so easily. As she gave in to despair, Yeon simply walked past her without doing anything.
This shocked her. "W-why… why did you let me live?" she asked softly.
"I only kill those who stand in my way," Yeon replied coldly.
Hearing this, Sightline fell silent, watching him disappear into the shadows.
___
The atmosphere in the main control room became tense. In front of the main screen displaying the previous battle, the NSIS chairman's face froze. He stared with wide eyes, clearly seeing how the Hexa Core—the prototype of their mainstay experimental subject—was destroyed by Yeon in just a moment.
"Impossible…" he muttered softly, almost inaudibly. His hands holding the back of the chair were shaking.
Then, at that very moment, a cold and calm voice sounded from behind him.
"You shouldn't be too disappointed. I never intended to play around from the start."
The chairman was shocked. He immediately turned his head back, and instantly lost his balance, falling off his chair. Behind the shadow of the holographic screen, Yeon stood calmly, without any pressure, as if this room was his own.
"Y-You… how could you—"
"From the start, I knew you were observing me," Yeon interrupted, casually. "It was quite annoying actually, but I let it be… because I wanted to see how far you guys could play around."
The NESIS chairman held his breath. He knew that the security system in this base was state-of-the-art—Yeon's ability to appear here undetected was definitely not ordinary.
"What do you want?" The chairman's voice was nervous, but he tried to maintain his dignity.
Yeon stepped forward slowly, approaching the large table in the center of the room. He stared at the NESIS chairman expressionlessly.
"Kael and Caius," he answered simply.
The NESIS chairman's face immediately changed. He opened his mouth, as if he was about to say something, but Yeon continued first.
"Relax. I didn't come to steal them now. I just wanted to say thank you."
The chairman opened his eyes, confused. "What do you mean?"
Yeon shrugged, then looked at the monitor displaying the latest experimental data.
"I originally planned to manually awaken Kael's fragment and accelerate Caius's power up after I finished my business. But apparently, you guys have already done it for me. Your experiments… have been quite effective, at least in terms of enhancing their latent potential."
The chairman's eyes widened.
"You know… their potential?" he asked in disbelief.
Yeon smiled thinly, as if to say it was too trivial.
"Since the first time I met them," he replied flatly. "Thanks to you, Kael and Caius will soon be resurrected."
The NESIS chairman imagined, his mind starting to get confused. This information—about Kael and Caius' hidden potential—should only be known to a limited circle within NESIS. How could Yeon know about it?
Then Yeon turned directly to him, his gaze now sharper, but still calm.
"Your ambition… is to create an experimental subject that surpasses Level 7, right? How ridiculous."
The chairman returned, shocked for the umpteenth time. He had never stated that openly.
Yeon sighed, as if saying something stupid but not surprising to him.
"Unfortunately, you do not understand the true essence of Level 7."
He walked slowly to the side of the room, stopping near the holographic wall that displayed fragments of graphic resonance.
"Level 7 is not the end of the world. It is simply the point at which a vessel reaches 100% resonance with its fragments. The pinnacle of harmony. But not the pinnacle of power. That is where it all begins."
The NESIS leader stared at him, not interrupting.
"And the levels beyond that," Yeon continued, "cannot be achieved by experimentation. Not by genetic engineering, artificial stimulation, or fragment manipulation. No matter how much data you collect, or how sophisticated your devices are. Those levels can only be achieved by those who are truly worthy—those who fight, who are tested, who are close to death… and rise of their own accord."
Yeon stared straight into the leader's eyes.
"That is why you failed. Because you fundamentally treated potential like a number on a screen. True power comes from choice, not force."
Silence.
The NESIS leader said nothing, unable to reply. Yeon turned, walking away as if the discussion were over.
"I'll pick them up later," Yeon said calmly. "You don't have to drop them off."
And with that, Yeon disappeared in a flash. No light, no sound—he was simply gone, leaving the chairman alone in the now much quieter room.