CHAPTER 166: NATURE’S SOVEREIGN

The forest trembled again.

Low, rhythmic—like the breath of something stirring beneath soil and root. Birds scattered in pulses. Branches bowed not to wind, but something deeper.

Jin slowed, boots crunching dead leaves as he stepped toward the base of the great tree—the one that had once housed Gugwe-mok.

And now, pulsed with a sickly green glow. A glow that ran like veins up the length of the trunk, bleeding into branches that didn’t sway so much as quiver.

Behind him, Aesteros came to a halt.

"So," the old stone figure said, his voice quiet, watching the light, "the birth is near."

Jin didn’t speak. He didn’t need to.

The air shifted.

A translucent system window bloomed in front of him:

[System Notice: Lifeform Detected][Designation: Seed of Gugwe-mok][Catalyst Reached. Initiation Threshold: 100%]

Do you wish to release the evolved form?

[Y/N]

Jin’s hand hovered over the prompt.

And paused.

Behind him, footsteps. Light ones. Fast.

"Jin?" Echo appeared first, one of his sound-disks still trailing behind like a sentinel. "What’s going on?"

Seul and Joon weren’t far behind. All of them were armed. Co-leaders, prepared for war.

"The tree," Joon said, pointing. "It’s glowing."

"No shit," Seul muttered. Her brows furrowed. "Is this... the boss again?"

"No," Aesteros answered, calm as ever. "Not the same. But not entirely different, either."

Jin’s fingers tightened.

He hit [Yes].

The glow stopped.

For a moment.

Then the entire clearing shook again.

A pulse of power erupted from the roots—green energy crackling like broken sunlight, threading through moss and bark and leaf. The tree twisted upward, its shape warping—until it cracked open like a husk.

From within—

A figure stepped out.

Tall. Lean. Composed of verdant wood and flowering branches. Eyes luminous and unreadable. Hair like woven vines, twisting around shoulders with blossoms blooming along the strands.

Feminine in form, but wild in essence.

A new system window blinked into view.

[Achievement Unlocked: He Who Commands Nature]

[Reward Granted: Complete Control over Designated Entity – ████ ███ ████]

The name was glitched out. Entirely.

The figure stopped before Jin.

And bowed—just slightly. A single, reverent dip of the head.

"What would you have of me, master?" she asked.

Her voice was a whisper of leaves, wind through stone, something not meant to be shaped into language.

The group tensed.

Echo’s disk spun faster.

Seul raised one hand, gravity tightening around her.

Joon crackled with passive electricity, stance low.

A heartbeat passed.

Then the new being’s eyes flicked to Aesteros.

And her composure cracked.

"You."

She launched forward like a blade through glass. Vines exploded from her arms, lashes of thorns and energy whipping toward Aesteros with enough force to tear trees from their roots.

Aesteros didn’t flinch.

His palm came up. Earth responded.

With a deep rumble, the ground split and surged, a jagged pillar of stone slamming into the attack. Energy shattered like glass—but so did part of her shoulder, the vine-laced skin unraveling in a burst of petals and bark.

She staggered back, form flickering—but reformed in seconds, the wound stitching itself together with glowing moss and pulsing root.

Jin stepped forward sharply.

"Stand down," he said, voice clear and firm.

The forest went still.

The being froze mid-step.

Then, slowly, she obeyed—pulling back, her form unwinding and returning to neutral, though her eyes stayed locked on Aesteros like a predator cornered.

"I won’t take orders from him," she said coldly. "Not after what he did to me."

"I didn’t ask you to," Jin replied.

He turned to Aesteros.

"You going to explain that?"

Aesteros, for the first time in recent memory, looked not tired... but nostalgic.

He took a breath.

And spoke the name.

The one the system had hidden.

"Welcome back," he said, soft and slow. "It’s been a long time... old friend."

The entity hissed.

"Fuck off."

Echo blinked.

"...Okay," he said quietly. "So this got complicated fast."

Seul lowered her hand but didn’t relax. "What the hell is she?"

"More importantly," Joon said, "what is she to him?"

The tree behind them creaked again, but only softly now. The clearing had stopped glowing. The wind was calm.

Only tension remained.

And questions.

Jin glanced at them all.

"We’re going to find answers," he said.

"Together."

The clearing remained still. Unnaturally so.

Wind didn’t blow. The leaves didn’t rustle. The new figure—green and alive, yet somehow older than the land around them—watched Aesteros like a blade still half-drawn. Her vine-like hair drifted in the stale air, pulsing faintly with residual light from the birthing glow.

She had calmed. But not forgotten.

And everyone could feel it.

Jin broke the silence first. "What did he do to you?"

His voice wasn’t accusing.

It wasn’t soft either.

The others stood in a semicircle behind him—Echo silent, Joon tense with low-simmering energy, Seul watching with calculating eyes. They weren’t ready to attack. But they weren’t far from it either.

The being tilted her head slowly. "You don’t remember?"

There was no menace in her voice.

Only weight.

She turned to Jin, eyes glowing faintly. "You were there. You all were."

Joon blinked. "What—"

"When I came through," she continued, voice quiet. "When I tore through your city as a wall of roots and fury. That thing. That monster. The system called it Gugwe-mok."

Jisoo, who had joined late from the side path, spoke up. "The boss."

"The one Aesteros destroyed," Seul added, voice sharp.

Her eyes narrowed.

The being met her gaze evenly.

"Yes. That wasn’t me."

"But it was," she said softly. "A twisted version. My form. My rage. But not... my mind."

Jin’s brows pulled together. "Then what was it?"

She looked away.

And for the first time, there was hesitation.

"...Corruption," she said. "The kind you don’t walk away from. Unless something... or someone... tears it out of you."

Aesteros remained silent. His expression unreadable.

Echo frowned. "Corruption? Like... viral?"

The woman laughed bitterly. "No. Not a sickness. Not a glitch. A will."

She turned back to them.

"To call it corruption is almost kind. Because it wasn’t aimless. It wasn’t broken. It was controlled. Driven."

Jin’s voice lowered. "By what?"

The being looked straight at him.

Not with anger.

But something more fragile.

"...An Anomaly."

Jin’s stomach dropped.

The word echoed too cleanly.

He took a half-step forward. "You’re sure?"

"Beyond certainty."

Jisoo looked between them. "Wait. You know what that is?"

"I met one," Jin said quietly. "During the maze trial."

A shift passed through the clearing.

A breath held by everyone.

Even Aesteros turned his head.

"You what?" he asked. Calm—but sharper than before.

Jin’s hand drifted near Muramasa’s hilt, though he didn’t draw it.

"He called himself ’Undefined.’ Said he wasn’t alone. That there were others like him."

The being’s body tensed.

"That name," she whispered. "Even among their kind, he is... untethered."

"What did he look like?" Aesteros asked, stepping closer now.

Jin didn’t answer immediately. His gaze was steady.

Long coat. Weird mask. That playful, too-casual attitude he had as if he could do whatever he wanted.

"He looked like a man who never took anything seriously. Except power."

The being sighed. "Then it was him."

Joon finally spoke. "Wait, wait, wait. Can we rewind for a second? What are these anomalies exactly? Are they just people with stronger skills? Higher stats?"

"No," Aesteros said grimly. "They are exceptions."

The being’s fingers curled loosely at her sides, vines twitching like nerves under skin.

"The system can’t control them. Not fully. They... transcend it."

Echo muttered, "Transcendents..."

Jin nodded. "That’s what he called them. Said people like him don’t follow normal growth paths. That the system bends around them."

Aesteros stirred beside him, quiet until now.

"What else did he say?" he asked, voice low but firm.

Jin hesitated only for a moment. Then:

"He said I was one of them."

A heavy pause.

It hit like a crack through the forest floor.

Echo blinked. "Wait. You?"

Joon’s brows shot up. "Bro, that actually explains a lot."

Seul crossed her arms, looking at Jin like she was re-evaluating everything. "Infinite potential... All those ridiculous feats. Fighting above your level. Killing monsters way beyond your grade."

Jisoo muttered, "The sword. The weapon. The titles."

Even Yujin, perched quietly on a nearby root, tilted her head. "Makes more sense than most things."

The green-skinned woman scoffed. Loudly.

"You?" she repeated, voice tinged with disbelief. "A Transcendent?"

Jin turned toward her, expression unreadable.

She stepped forward, vines curling loosely behind her like the train of a gown. Her eyes—glowing softly with forest flame—narrowed.

"You don’t feel like one," she said. "You barely even radiate pressure. I’ve felt more threat from the wind on a warm day."

Seul raised an eyebrow. "Watch it."

The spirit ignored her.

"Transcendents are anomalies, yes," she continued. "But not just because they break the rules. They are engines of distortion. Beacons of impossible momentum. Their mere existence bends the laws of the world."

She looked Jin over, unimpressed.

"You’re not dangerous. Not to me."

Jin said nothing.

She took another step closer. "You couldn’t take me down in a corrupted state. You wouldn’t even be able to take me down now. Not even if I was weakened."

"That’s enough," Aesteros said, stepping between them slightly. "He is stronger than you realize."

She laughed—sharp and earthy. "Stronger than I realize? I was a system boss, boy. I was corrupted, yes—but my power was not false."

Her voice turned cold. "You think this child could fell me?"

Jin looked at her now. Not with arrogance. Not even challenge.

Just readiness.

He didn’t reach for Muramasa. He didn’t need to.

She noticed.

And smiled.

"Then prove it," she said.

Everyone stilled.

Jisoo blinked. "Wait, what?"

The spirit raised a hand, letting a single green wisp curl from her fingertip.

"You hold my leash, do you not?" she asked, voice a touch teasing. "The system has granted you dominion. You are my master in title."

She leaned in, just a little.

"But I am not a creature of systems. I am nature made thought. And I don’t respect power just because some floating screen tells me to."

Joon’s jaw tightened. "Are you threatening him?"

"No," she said. "I’m challenging him."

Echo clicked his tongue. "There’s a difference?"

"To me, yes."

Then she turned back to Jin.

"If you can impress me—if you can prove that you’re more than just an anomaly with a nice sword—then I will give you something."

"A gift," she added. "A skill. Old. Ancient. And worthy of someone who calls themselves a master of nature."

"A contract?" Jin asked slowly.

"No," she said. "A bond. Freely given. If earned."

He was quiet for a moment. Then:

"And if I don’t impress you?"

She shrugged. "Then we will see how long the system’s leash holds when the forest turns."

Silence again.

A single breeze stirred the canopy above them.

Jin looked at his team—Seul, Echo, Joon, Yujin, Jisoo, and the other recruits.

None of them said anything. But their stances said enough.

They’d stand with him.

Always.

Even against a god.

Jin exhaled once.

"Fine," he said. "You want proof?"

She nodded.

"Then I’ll show you."

She smiled.

"Good," she said. "Then let’s see what kind of king you really are."