The leader's scream didn't stop immediately—it tore through the trees, sharp and uneven, rising into something raw as his legs gave out beneath him and his body collapsed in a way that didn't make sense even to himself, his hands clawing at the ground as if that alone could somehow hold him up, as if refusing the reality of what had just happened would undo it, but nothing responded the way he wanted it to, nothing obeyed him anymore, and the pain that followed came all at once, crashing into him with a force that left him shaking, breath breaking apart as panic set in faster than thought could keep up. Jin didn't look at him for long. Not yet. His attention shifted away, toward the others, toward the ones still on the ground, still moving just enough to prove they weren't done yet, still breathing, still conscious enough to feel what was coming.
The first step toward them was calm.
Controlled.
The kind of movement that belonged to someone who knew exactly what he was doing.
He crouched slightly, his hand tightening into a fist as the first strike came down cleanly, snapping the head sideways with a sharp impact that echoed faintly through the trees, the body jerking once before collapsing more heavily against the ground, and for a brief moment—just a moment—it could have ended there. It didn't.
A sound surfaced.
Laughter.
Not from here.
From before.
"Look at him."
"Pathetic."
"Is that his sister?"
The next strike came harder.
Not placed.
Not measured.
The sound changed.
Duller.
He hit again.
And again.
The rhythm shifted from controlled to something else entirely, each movement faster, heavier, less precise, his breathing starting to lose its steady pattern as the memory pushed forward, dragging more with it, voices overlapping in his head with a clarity that made them feel present instead of past.
"Your family is disgusting."
"Like father, like son"
"Even if she has blood of a traitor. Just look at her——"
The next blow landed with enough force to smear blood across his knuckles, the impact no longer clean, no longer contained, the body beneath him already slack, already failing to respond, but Jin didn't stop, his arm rising and falling in the same motion, over and over, each strike driving deeper into something that no longer resembled a person, the shape breaking under repeated force, collapsing inward, losing definition with each impact.
He didn't notice.
Or he didn't care.
The second one tried to move.
A weak attempt.
A crawl that didn't go anywhere.
Jin shifted.
Grabbed him.
Dragged him slightly.
Then hit.
Once.
Twice.
Again.
The sound was different now.
Wet.
Heavy.
Each strike landed harder than the last, the resistance fading quickly, then completely, until there was nothing left to push against, nothing left to react, but still the motion continued, his breathing rough now, uneven, his thoughts no longer separating present from memory as everything blurred together into something heavier, something darker that didn't need control to exist.
Blood spread.
Across his hands.
Across his arms.
Across the ground beneath him.
Pooling.
Darkening the dirt.
The third one didn't even get the chance to stand.
Jin moved without thinking, stepping forward and striking immediately, the impact driving him flat against the ground before the next hit followed, then another, the sequence continuing without pause, without rhythm, just force, raw and unfiltered, until the body beneath him stopped entirely, and even then—
He didn't stop.
His arm slowed only when it had to.
Muscle tightening.
Breath catching.
Movement weakening on its own.
And only then—
Did the motion end.
Silence followed.
Not clean.
Not light.
Heavy.
Thick.
Jin stayed there for a moment, his chest rising unevenly now, his hands coated, the ground beneath him unrecognizable, the air itself feeling heavier than before, as if it had absorbed everything that had just happened and refused to let it go.
Then—
He stood.
Slowly.
Turned.
The leader was still there.
Still watching.
But not the same.
Not even close.
The anger was gone.
The arrogance gone.
All that remained was something broken, something that had already given up before anything else could happen, his body shaking uncontrollably as he stared, unable to look away from what was left behind, from what Jin had turned the others into without stopping, without hesitation, without even realizing when it had gone too far.
"Please…"
The word barely formed.
Jin stepped closer.
Each step measured.
Heavy.
The leader flinched with every movement, his hands digging into the dirt as he tried to push himself back, to create distance that didn't exist, his breath coming out in broken gasps that didn't hold together.
"Say it."
Jin's voice was low.
Flat.
The leader blinked, confusion cutting through fear for a second before understanding settled in slowly, painfully.
"I… I'm…"
"Louder."
"I'm a coward."
"Louder!"
"I'M A COWARD!!"
The scream echoed.
Then died.
Jin stared at him.
For a moment longer than necessary.
Then stepped back.
"Leave, Run."
The leader tried.
He tried to stand.
His legs didn't respond.
Didn't exist for him anymore.
He fell forward, hands catching him as he began to drag himself instead, crawling across the ground with uneven movements, his fingers slipping in the blood he himself couldn't avoid, his breath breaking into uneven sobs as he tried to move faster than his body allowed.
Jin watched.
Just watched.
For a few seconds.
Then—
Something shifted again.
Not explosive.
Not chaotic like before.
Quieter.
Colder.
But still there.
He moved.
Closed the distance in a few steps.
The leader turned his head just enough to see him.
Eyes wide.
Empty.
Then—
It ended.
The movement stopped.
Completely.
No sound.
No breath.
Nothing.
Jin stood there without moving, his chest rising unevenly as the last traces of motion left his body, the tension that had driven him forward moments ago draining out not in relief but in something heavier, something that settled deep instead of fading away, his hands still hanging at his sides as the warmth on his skin slowly cooled, the smell of blood thick in the air around him, clinging to everything, to the ground, to his clothes, to him. For a few seconds, his mind didn't catch up with what his body had already done, the silence pressing in from all sides as if the forest itself had stepped back, unwilling to acknowledge what remained behind him, and when his thoughts finally began to move again, they did so slowly, like something forcing itself through resistance rather than flowing naturally. His gaze lowered, taking in the ground not as it had been before but as it was now, uneven, darkened, wrong in a way that couldn't be explained away or ignored, and the weight of it settled somewhere deeper than anger, deeper than the heat that had driven his fists forward, something colder, something that didn't leave easily.
Then—
A faint chime cut through the silence.
It wasn't loud.
It didn't need to be.
Jin's head lifted slightly, the sound slicing cleanly through everything else, sharper than the memories that had just consumed him, sharper than the pounding in his chest, and for a moment his mind blanked completely, caught on something too simple and too impossible at the same time.
[Kill Confirmed]
The message appeared clearly in front of him.
Another line followed without delay.
[Calculating Target Stats…]
His expression changed.
Not gradually.
Instantly.
The system had reacted.
Not to monsters.
Not to something inside a gate.
To this.
To what he had just done.