Chapter:4 The mark of the chosen!!

The air around them trembled, thick with residual energy from Kai's awakening. Steam rose from the cratered ground where the Warden's body had disintegrated—now nothing more than a fading pile of shattered black fragments, twitching like dying embers. The silence that followed the battle was almost louder than the chaos itself.

Kai stumbled forward, his breath ragged and uneven. Every muscle in his body screamed, but something had shifted. The golden sigil etched into his palm pulsed faintly—alive, aware. His mind, once fogged by confusion and fear, now burned with a strange clarity… and dozens of questions.

"Did anyone else see that?" Jade whispered, her voice shaky.

No one responded immediately. The group stood frozen—Eren with his fists still clenched, Yuto scanning the shadows with narrowed eyes, Luna clutching her glowing pendant, and Ken adjusting his cracked glasses without a word. Even the wind seemed afraid to move.

Kai straightened up, ignoring the blood trickling from his nose. "We can't stay here."

"But what just happened?" Luna asked. "You… that light. You shouldn't even be alive. That thing was going to crush you."

"I don't know," Kai said, sharper than he intended. "But I know one thing—we're not safe. That Warden… it was just a test."

A deep mechanical clang echoed in the distance, rolling through the blackened trees like a war drum. Then another. And another. It was as if something massive had started moving—counting down, advancing.

Eren's voice was grim. "Something else is coming."

They didn't argue. The group moved—fast, instinctively, silently. No one had to say it aloud anymore. This world didn't wait for explanations.

The forest twisted around them unnaturally, trees leaning inward as if they were listening. The chrono fog had grown thicker, crackling with electric blue static. But something strange happened: wherever Kai stepped, the mist parted, almost fearfully. It wasn't reacting to him—it was avoiding him.

"Look," Jade pointed toward a glowing stone slab up ahead. Etched across its surface were lines of blue light forming concentric rings, pulsing in rhythm with Kai's sigil.

"A waypoint?" Ken asked, examining it closely. "Or… a checkpoint system. Like in a game."

"Do we touch it?" Luna asked.

Without hesitation, Kai pressed his palm against the stone. The surface grew warm beneath his skin. Then—

[CHRONO TRAIT ANALYSIS… INITIALIZED]

User Identified: Kai Voss

Trait Unlocked: Time Vein Manipulation – Level 1

Secondary Marker: Awakening Class Alpha

Synchronization: 12.4%

The light faded, but the knowledge didn't. It had been uploaded directly into their minds.

"What the hell does that mean?" Eren asked, looking at Kai like he was something dangerous.

"It means he's been chosen for something bigger," Yuto said. "And we're just passengers."

"I didn't ask for this," Kai said. "I almost died back there. I don't even know what 'Time Vein Manipulation' means!"

Jade stepped between them. "Fighting each other won't help. We still don't know who's watching us—or what the point of all this is."

The forest opened into a clearing shaped like a twisted hourglass. At its center stood a monolithic tower, spiraling into the sky, broken in places, pulsing with dim blue veins of light. A massive holographic timer floated above it.

[Next Trial Begins In: 05:00:00]

Five hours. That's all the time they had to recover before hell started again.

As they approached, a heavy wind howled through the clearing. The trees began shifting—like they were alive. Shadows darted between trunks, never fully forming but always watching.

"Another Warden?" Luna asked, eyes wide.

"No," Yuto said. "That was just the scout. This place—it's watching how we handle pressure. How we fracture."

They circled the tower cautiously. Beside it, etched into the ground, was another slab of stone—this one carved with strange runes. Kai knelt down and pressed his hand against it.

[YOU HAVE BEEN MARKED]

[THE OTHERS WILL FOLLOW OR FALL]

"What does that mean?" Ken asked.

"It means," Kai said quietly, "I'm the bait."

Later, as dusk approached and the chrono-fog deepened, the group scavenged whatever supplies they could. Eren dragged in the broken remains of the Warden—metal limbs twitching with residual energy.

Ken practically jumped. "This is top-tier tech! I might be able to make weapons out of this."

Something had shifted in the group. They weren't just afraid anymore. They were adapting.

As they built a crude shelter with scraps and fabric, Luna sat beside Kai near the fire. The flames flickered, casting shadows like ghosts across their faces.

"You okay?" she asked softly.

Kai stared at the fire. "No. I don't think I'll ever be okay again."

"You didn't choose this, but you stepped up. You saved us."

Kai sighed. "Back home, I was invisible. No one noticed me. No one cared. But here… this world forces you to matter. You're either a hero—or a corpse."

"Then let's choose to be heroes," Luna said, her voice almost a whisper.

Before Kai could respond, a metallic voice echoed in the distance.

[SENTINEL WARDEN - PHASE II: ONLINE]

The timer above the tower flickered, dropping by ten minutes instantly.

They looked at each other.

Five hours had just become four-fifty.

The real game had begun.

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