Harun did not rush.
There was no reason to.
The capital behind him had already become nothing but ruin and smoke. People who survived the disaster had fled days ago. Soldiers from nearby territories would eventually come to investigate.
But Harun preferred to be far away before that happened.
Old men who carried strange artifacts in their bags rarely enjoyed answering too many questions.
So he walked.
Slowly.
Patiently.
The road leading away from the destroyed kingdom stretched across quiet hills and empty fields. Villages along the way spoke only in whispers about what had happened.
A city destroyed in a single night.
A divine artifact breaking.
Some said a god had awakened.
Others said a demon had escaped.
Harun listened to the rumors without saying a word.
He simply continued walking.
The bag on his shoulder swayed gently with each step.
Inside the bag were only two objects that truly mattered.
The ugly frog statue.
And the shard of the Mirror.
By the third day of travel, Harun reached the border of a neighboring country.
A peaceful one.
No armies marching.
No war banners.
Just farms, quiet towns, and traders moving along the roads.
The guards at the border barely glanced at the old traveler.
Harun looked like exactly what he was pretending to be.
An old merchant.
A little dusty.
A little tired.
Harmless.
They waved him through without much interest.
Harun gave a small nod and continued walking.
Once he was far enough from the border, he sighed.
"Well," he muttered.
"That part went smoothly."
That evening, he stopped near a quiet forest.
A small fire crackled beside him as he sat on a fallen log.
Harun opened his travel bag slowly.
He took out a few pieces of dried bread.
Then a small water flask.
Finally, he glanced inside the bag again.
The frog statue sat crookedly among his belongings.
Its wide stone mouth looked permanently confused.
Harun snorted softly.
"You again."
He had taken the statue days ago almost out of habit.
Artifacts sometimes traveled in strange pairs.
He had learned that much in his lifetime.
Beside the frog statue lay the Mirror shard.
Small.
Silent.
Cold.
Harun stared at it for a moment.
"City-destroying artifact," he muttered.
"Reduced to this."
The shard didn't react.
It didn't glow.
It didn't tremble.
It didn't do anything.
Which, in Harun's experience, was both comforting and suspicious.
He closed the bag again.
"Let's hope you stay quiet."
Night fell slowly over the forest.
Crickets chirped softly.
The fire burned low.
Harun stretched out on the ground beside it and pulled his coat over himself.
Within minutes, the old man was asleep.
The forest grew quiet.
Wind brushed through the trees.
And inside the travel bag—
Something moved.
The frog statue shifted.
Just slightly.
Its stone body tilted slowly to one side.
Then the other.
As if adjusting its position.
No sound came from it.
No glow.
Just a quiet, unnatural movement.
After a moment, it stopped.
Now it faced a different direction inside the bag.
Directly toward the Mirror shard.
The shard remained completely still.
Cold.
Silent.
Unmoving.
Deep inside the shard—
There was darkness.
Endless darkness.
A vast, quiet void stretching in every direction.
Floating within it was a single figure.
Eunwoo.
His body drifted slowly through the empty space.
His eyes were closed.
His breathing slow and steady.
He was deeply asleep.
Not peaceful sleep.
But the kind that came after exhaustion too deep to fight anymore.
The grief.
The rage.
The destruction.
All of it had drained him completely.
So his mind had simply shut down.
Around him, faint lights flickered in the void.
Words appeared in glowing letters.
A familiar mechanical voice echoed softly.
[System Notice]
Conditions fulfilled.
Mirror Core destroyed.
World-level entity status achieved.
New Form Available.
The glowing text flickered again.
[Human Form Unlocked]
Activation pending.
Eunwoo did not move.
The words floated in front of him.
Waiting.
Another line appeared.
[User Response Required]
Silence.
Eunwoo continued drifting through the void.
Completely unaware.
The system message blinked patiently.
Waiting for him to wake up.
But for now—
The shard remained quiet.
The old man slept beside his fire.
The frog statue sat silently inside the bag.
And somewhere deep within the Mirror shard—
Eunwoo slept through the darkness.