Gyan's face was pale, though Rendi didn't notice. The traces of tears still lingered on his cheeks, but he kept his head low, hiding them beneath the shadow of sweat-drenched hair. Rendi was too busy catching his breath, his body trembling from the brutal battle they'd just survived. Both of them stood in the middle of the silent white room, like a void stripped of time itself.
Then, the sound of heavy footsteps echoed—slow, yet firm—pulling their gazes upward in reflex.
A tall, imposing figure emerged from the white fog. Jet-black armor wrapped his body, gleaming like obsidian. Draped over his shoulders was a deep crimson military cloak with two sharp forked branches etched across it—a symbol of the Triple-Eyed insignia, the highest rank in the alien hierarchy before ascending into the Fire and Galaxy classes.
It was Tran.
Gyan and Rendi instantly tensed, but their bodies were far too exhausted to react. The aura emanating from Tran was suffocating—as if he could obliterate them without lifting a single finger.
"You survived… Interesting."
With a wave of his hand, fine dust scattered from his black gauntlet—like stardust dancing in the air. Gyan tried to resist the sudden drowsiness invading his mind, but his body had reached its limit. His vision blurred, knees buckling.
"Re… Rendi…" he whispered weakly, just before darkness took him.
When they awoke, they were no longer in their alien prison.
Before them stood solid iron bars, forged from a dark, unfamiliar metal—too foreign to be earthly. They were trapped inside a capsule-shaped cell, nearly invisible, yet undeniably strong. Outside the bars stretched the sky of Earth… no longer blue. It was grey, choked with ash and smoke. A thin blanket of snow covered the skeletal ruins of buildings in the far distance.
Gyan felt a strange pressure in his chest. Rendi stared outside, wide-eyed.
"Is… is this Earth?"
Tran turned his head slightly—and smiled.
Gyan and Rendi understood.
They had returned to Earth.
But that wasn't the end.
Before them, assembled on the dead soil of Earth, stood an army of blue-skinned aliens, fully armed. Around a hundred soldiers lined up in military formation. Among them, ten sergeants wore deep red cloaks, each marked with a Hand symbol—ranging from one to four, indicating their rank.
Above them stood two lieutenants, dressed in brighter red with the One-Eye emblem glowing at their chests. And among them stood one they had heard of—Raff, Tran's right hand.
Raff wore a crimson cloak with a single sharp branch and the glowing One-Eye sigil on his chest. He stood tall, his gaze cold and unreadable, staring directly at Gyan and Rendi.
But it wasn't that which shocked them.
On the far side of the field, dozens of humans stood lined up inside crude prison cells. Their bodies were gaunt, weary, their eyes hollow. Unlike Gyan and Rendi—who were held in a reinforced capsule—the others were confined like mere livestock, penned in with nothing more than primitive bars and minimal restraint.
Tran walked slowly toward their capsule.
"Welcome home…"
From behind the transparent barrier, Gyan and Rendi saw it all.
Men, women, the elderly, even children—lined up like cattle awaiting slaughter. The iron bars caging them were ordinary, but the number of guards made escape impossible. The blue alien soldiers stood on each side, towering and armed with weapons that looked like a blend of blades and rifles. Their eyes were lifeless—cold and mechanical.
One by one, the captives were dragged out of their cages.
Gyan swallowed hard, his body stiff with tension. "Rendi… we have to—"
But his voice trailed off.
From outside their cell came the first scream.
Not a cry of resistance—no. It was the sound of pure terror. Raw. Hopeless.
Gyan's eyes widened as a young man was pulled toward a separate chamber. He kicked and screamed, but in mere seconds, the screaming stopped. Blood sprayed across the ground.
Gyan clenched his jaw. Rendi slammed his fists against the capsule wall, but not even a crack appeared on its seamless surface.
"TRAN! STOP THIS!" Rendi shouted.
Gyan trembled—not from fear, but fury. His breath came in short, broken bursts. The kind of breathing born from a rage too big to hold inside. Outside, several young women were being separated from the crowd. Some began to scream, struggle, cry out for help.
"Stop…" Gyan whispered. "Stop…"
But the aliens didn't care.
They laughed.
Some even pointed and jeered at the helpless humans. Their grins were twisted, their joy monstrous.
Raff stood at the center of the field. He didn't laugh. He didn't speak. He simply watched, expressionless, as if this was routine—just another day.
With cold precision, he and the other lieutenant gave silent orders. The sergeants barked commands. The soldiers obeyed.
And from atop a black metal platform, Tran stood like a king in the ruins of humanity.
"Can you feel it?" Tran's voice echoed not from his mouth, but inside Gyan and Rendi's minds. "This is reality. You are not heroes. You are witnesses. You will watch… and you will do nothing."
Gyan's fists tightened until his knuckles turned white. His eyes blurred—not with fear, but fury.
Rendi punched the capsule wall again and again. "LET US OUT! YOU BASTARD, LET US OUT!"
The screams of humans echoed endlessly.
Smoke curled into the sky.
And blood stained the snow.
Their cell did not even scratch. The walls were too strong. All they could do was watch.
Gyan sat on the cold floor of the capsule, his back pressed against the smooth metal wall. His hands trembled—something inside him had begun to fracture.
The screams outside still echoed. Some had fallen silent forever. But the remnants… still cried out. Gyan heard the voice of a child, weeping—calling for her mother. He didn't know if the mother was already dead, or merely waiting her turn to die.
Rendi kept screaming. His fists were bloodied, broken from striking the walls again and again. But he didn't care.
Gyan stared ahead. Blankly. His once-sharp eyes were now empty. His soul was sinking—deeper and deeper into a pit of helplessness. His body might have survived… but something in his spirit was being torn apart.
"Why… Why can't I do anything…?" he whispered.
His fists clenched. He slammed them against the floor.
"What's the point of surviving the asteroid… if now all I can do is sit here and watch them suffer?"
Tears began to fall again—but not like before. They streamed quietly, like a river surrendering to the current. For the second time… Gyan cried.
But this time was different.
This time, he cried not from fear or despair.
He cried from rage.
From the crushing guilt of helplessness. From the weight of a promise—unspoken, but burning in his heart—that he had already failed to keep.
Rendi looked at him, silent. He saw Gyan's face… and understood. This wasn't exhaustion.
This was something else.
"Gyan…"
"We have to be stronger, Ren…" Gyan's voice was quiet, but unwavering. "If we're not… we're just…"
His face hardened. His gaze sharpened. Tears still streamed, but behind them—a storm. A blazing storm, rising from the core of his being.
Outside the cell, Raff turned his head slightly. The single glowing eye on his chest focused on Gyan—as if sensing something… different.
Tran watched from afar.
He didn't speak. But he saw.
And he smiled.
Because Gyan didn't know what was coming for the two of them.
Something inside him had changed.
And from this moment—marked by blood, snow, and helpless fury—began the true breaking of their souls…
…but also, the birth of something else.