Chapter 15 The First Experiment
**The air crackled with static** as the gate swirled to life in the tunnel behind them. Not the chaotic violet rifts of the surface—this one pulsed with the same eerie blue as the military's weapons, its edges perfectly geometric.
Hye-jin backed toward the lab equipment. "That's not like the others..."
Min-jun's Eclipse Rot *screamed* a warning. He'd seen this energy before—in the Celestial Vanguard's weapons, in the core of Namsan Tower's rift.
*Human-made.*
Ji-hoon clutched his head as the gate expanded. "They're *singing*..."
A figure stepped through.
Not a monster.
A *man* in a tattered lab coat, his skin translucent enough to see the veins beneath, his eyes glowing the same unnatural blue as the gate. When he spoke, his voice buzzed like a corrupted recording:
**"Subject Zero confirmed. Initiate recall protocol."**
Hye-jin's gun shook. "Dr. Kang?"
The thing that had been Dr. Kang tilted its head. **"Designation: Echo Seven. You will relinquish the subject."** Its hand extended toward Ji-hoon, fingers elongating into needle-thin probes.
Min-jun moved.
His fist connected with the creature's chest—and the Eclipse Rot *reacted*, black veins lashing out to consume the blue energy. The thing that was once Dr. Kang shrieked, its form destabilizing as the Rot ate through it.
But more figures were emerging from the gate.
Dozens more.
---
**The lab equipment hummed to life** around them, powered by the gate's energy. Dusty monitors flickered with decades-old footage:
- *A younger Xia in a lab coat, adjusting the machine's dials.*
- *A containment chamber holding a pulsing black mass—the first Void sample.*
- *And a baby's cry as the camera panned to an incubator... with the name "Park Ji-hoon" on the chart.*
Ji-hoon stumbled. "No... that's impossible. I was born in—"
**"2001,"** Hye-jin finished, face pale. "Two years *after* this footage."
Min-jun's brand burned as the truth clicked into place. Ji-hoon wasn't just connected to the Void.
*He was made from it.*
The first hybrid.
The perfect key.
---
**The Echoes advanced**, their movements synchronized like a single organism. Min-jun tore through three of them, the Rot feasting on their stolen energy—but for every one he destroyed, two more stepped through the gate.
Hye-jin fired her last round. "We can't hold them!"
Ji-hoon suddenly grabbed the largest piece of lab equipment—a cylindrical device covered in warning stickers. "Then we change the rules."
He *slammed* it into the machine's core.
The reaction was instantaneous.
The gate *convulsed*, its edges fraying as the Echoes writhed in agony. The lab's walls began to *peel* away, revealing glimpses of other times, other places:
- *A battlefield where golden-armored warriors fought against versions of themselves turned inside out.*
- *A younger Soo-ah reaching toward the first gate, her pregnant belly glowing.*
- *And Xia—not as a disciple, not as a scientist—as something* else, *standing at the center of a collapsing star.*
Ji-hoon's eyes bled blue as he held the device. "She didn't want to sacrifice me..." His voice doubled, tripled, layers of other voices bleeding through. "She wanted to *complete* me."
The gate exploded.
And the world—
*rewrote itself.*
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**TO BE CONTINUED...**