"Just what?" the old man cut him off, his sharp tone echoing in the still air. "A mortal? A fleeting presence in your endless lives? You underestimate her, Jihoon. Jiho is no ordinary soul. Her essence was the foundation upon which this fragile world rested. Without her intact, this system was destined to collapse under your weight."
Minseo's voice broke the tense silence, calm but edged with urgency. "Why now? The other worlds held us without issue. What changed?"
The old man's eyes softened, though his words carried the same biting weight. "In those worlds," he began, "Jiho's soul was whole. It absorbed and tempered your powers, serving as a buffer between you and the fragile threads of existence. But here? Her soul is fractured, scattered into fragments too weak to sustain such chaos."
Kyung Ho's voice, low and steady, carried a weight that silenced the growing protests. "You're saying... Jiho was holding us together. She was the reason those worlds didn't break."
