Chapter Text
The cliffs descended into darkness so deep that sunlight entered reluctantly, touching only the upper ledges before surrendering to shadow.
Yuseong staggered at the cliff end, after trying to run away from Changsu and his subordinates while carrying Daniel and Eugene in his back. Now they've been cornered.
Daniel arm hung uselessly at his side. Almost all of his body parts no longer obeyed him. His bones were fractured in more places than he could count. Blood dripped steadily from the punctured hole on both of his palms, from the split skin above his brow, from the deep bruising along his ribs that flared with every breath he forced into his lungs. Each inhale felt like dragging broken glass through his chest. Each exhale tasted like rust and iron.
He had stopped distinguishing between his own blood and someone else’s a long time ago.
The taste of iron clung to his tongue so stubbornly that he could no longer remember what clean air felt like.
Kitae Kim.
The name itself had become a wound.
It felt—like a blade still lodged somewhere beneath the skin, twisting whenever he tried to move.
Daniel had fought formidable opponents before. He had faced kings, geniuses who calculated violence like mathematics, and monsters who smiled while breaking bones as if it were a form of art.
But Kitae Kim was something else entirely.
A brutality carved not just into flesh and bone, but into instinct itself. Every movement Kitae made had felt like an inevitability, as though the outcome of their fight had been decided long before Daniel ever threw his first punch.
And yet—He had survived.
The world tilted. Not enough to make him fall. Just enough to remind him that his body had reached its limit and was now surviving solely through stubbornness.
Somewhere behind, Changsu and his subordinates already catch up to them. With the relaxed confidence of hunters who already knew their prey had nowhere left to run.
Far beneath the cliffs, water moved through darkness.
The wind rose sharply. It carried another scent now.
Blood.
Yuseong was still standing while carrying both Daniel and Eugene. His neck was soaked crimson where the blade had pierced him earlier. The wound should have killed him instantly—any normal person would have collapsed within seconds.
His vision flickered. The blood loss from the stabbed wound on his neck take much tool the longer it didn't get treated properly. Every few seconds his knees threatened to give way beneath him, but each time he forced himself upright again through nothing except willpower.
Both of his arm supported Eugene and Daniel.
Blood trickle from Eugene forehead, and his normally immaculate appearance had been reduced to something almost unrecognizable.
Across the terrain of the canyon path, dozens of figures emerged from the darkness between the rocks.
One of the men stepped forward. "Boys... You done running away? Right now is the time for all of you to die."
They did not run. They walked. Because they knew exactly where the path ended.
At the edge of the cliff.
"Don't get greedy, they're going to die anyway"
Changsu stepped forward and glanced at Yuseong. "You must be tired from carrying two people while also sustaining that deep wound on your neck, why don't you give up and die." His voice carried easily across the wind.
No one answered.
One of Changsu man approached him from behind. "Mr. Changsu Oh, there's something i need to tell you... Jinyoung Park is dead."
From their current distance, Daniel could hear clearly what they whispered. Frantically he raised his head, unbelievable Uncle Jinyoung is already dead? No it can't be.
This is the worst, Uncle put his life on the line to protect me and i couldn't even move to fight anymore. I need to fight!
"Yuseong... Put me down."
“Daniel... What are you doing!? You can't fight right now!” Eugene gritted his teeth while he warn Daniel.
Changsu raised an eyebrow. “Thinking of fighting with that broken body of yours? Your one tenacious kid.” A faint smile touched Changsu’s mouth.
“Daniel Park, listen to me! If you had two option, either one hundred percent chance of death, or one percent chance of survival... Which would you choose?” Eugene breathing came in short, uneven bursts.
Daniel’s head snapped up. He followed Eugene gaze toward the edge. The river below looked less like water and more like a strip of liquid darkness threading through the bottom of the cliff.
Daniel closed his eyes briefly. If there is one chance left, then there is still a fight left. Daniel opened his eyes. "I'd go with one percent chance of survival, of course...”
Eugene nodded his head in understanding, then looked at his twin brother Yuseong to convey what he wanted.
“Very well... Let's hope we all survive this.”
Changsu’s expression hardened instantly.
“Stop them!” The command shattered the moment. His men surged forward.
Yuseong grabbed Daniel. Pain answered him from every part of his body, as if his body itself was protesting even the idea of movement. The three of them moved together across the final stretch of stone. And the impossible distance between life and death.
They reached the cliff together. For a single heartbeat, time seemed to loosen its grip upon them.
Daniel looked at the river below. At the mountains beyond. At the sky bleeding into twilight.
He thought—Of home. Then they jumped.
The cliff walls blurred into streaks of stone and shadow, stretching endlessly upward as if the world itself was trying to escape them. Wind tore violently at Daniel’s body, ripping breath from his lungs before he could even think to hold it.
The river below them grew larger with terrifying speed—a silver thread becoming a roaring inevitability.
Impact.
The world shattered. The river was colder than death itself, Daniel's body was swallowed instantly.
His broken limbs refused to obey him. His lungs convulsed violently as water forced its way inside, replacing air with something heavy and suffocating.
Above him—
Light fractured across the surface. A distant, unreachable world. He reached for it. But his body sank deeper.
The river dragged him downward with merciless patience, pulling him into darkness that had no bottom.
Sound disappeared. Sight followed.
Even pain began to fade—not because it was gone, but because there was nothing left to interpret it.
The last thing Daniel felt was not fear.
It was regret.