The gate shimmered behind them, its light pulsing once—then dimmed, dissolving into a fine mist that vanished with the wind. The five hunters stood in silence, the ruins of the Screaming Vault at their backs, the early evening sky painted in strokes of violet and crimson.
Kim Suho took a deep breath. The stench of sulfur and blood clung to his senses. Behind his eyes, Caldran's final strike still echoed. The Hollow King's empty scream had faded, but the weight of what they had faced lingered like dust in their bones.
Jinho, the B-rank swordsman, sheathed his cracked blade with a frown. "That… wasn't a D-rank gate. That thing down there—whatever it was—no one ever mentioned something like that hiding beneath the surface."
"No," Suho said softly. "It wasn't."
Baek Mirae, Kang Minho, and Im Hojin stood a few paces behind, unusually quiet. They weren't looking at the battlefield anymore.
They were looking at Suho.
Minho finally broke the silence. "I… didn't do anything in there."
"You tanked the entrance wave," Mirae offered, but her tone lacked pride. "After that, it was just… watching."
"Watching," Hojin echoed. He looked down at his gloved hands. "We were nothing but extras."
The quiet truth settled in among them like ash. None of the three had spoken during the Hollow King's fall. They hadn't needed to. They had all felt it—that raw, terrible power Suho had summoned, the way his undead moved with precision and fury.
"I'm sorry," Suho said. "I didn't mean to leave you out—"
"No," Mirae interrupted. "You didn't. We were just… out of our depth."
Minho gave a dry chuckle. "That thing you did with the Hollow King… I've never seen anything like it."
"I wouldn't have reached that far without you keeping the mobs off me," Suho said. "You still helped."
"Barely," Hojin muttered. "It wasn't enough."
Suho looked at them—looked. Baek Mirae: 23, a gifted C-rank elementalist with sharp eyes and a quicker temper. Kang Minho: 22, a sturdy tank with grit and little else. Im Hojin: 23, the tracker who moved like a ghost but didn't believe in himself. All three were around Suho's age—and all three had the same hollow look in their eyes. The look of people who thought they were strong… until reality hit back.
Then Suho turned his gaze on Jinho. The only one older, a proper B-ranker who had seen more raids than the rest of them combined. He met Suho's eyes.
"I am," Suho said.
Jinho sighed. "About your powers. The necromancy. The sentient undead. All of it?"
Suho nodded. "If the wrong people find out, it's not just me they'll come for. It's you. The top guilds won't ignore something like this. Neither will the Association."
Minho crossed his arms. "Then what now? We just pretend like it was a normal clear?"
"You can walk away," Suho said. "No strings. But if you stay… things are going to get dangerous. I'm not chasing glory—I'm chasing something deeper. And I don't plan to stop."
"Good," Mirae said. "Because neither do we."
Suho blinked.
"I mean, think about it," she went on. "We're the same age. We're all barely scraping through D-ranks and C-ranks, and we just watched you stand toe-to-toe with something that would've wiped us out. I've never felt more useless. I hate that."
Minho stepped forward. "I want to grow. I don't want to be someone who survives a raid just by hiding behind someone stronger."
Hojin nodded. "If we keep pretending we're strong when we're not, we'll die in the next real gate."
Suho looked at them—at these three hunters around his age, bearing bruises on both body and pride—and something in him settled.
"You're sure?"
"I am," Mirae said.
Minho grinned. "Hell yes."
Hojin gave a quiet thumbs-up. "Let's go."
Only Jinho remained unmoved.
"I can't," he said. "I've got guild contracts, people watching me. I stepped too far into something I wasn't ready for." He looked at Suho. "But I'll keep quiet. That much I promise."
Suho offered his hand. Jinho shook it.
"Be careful," the B-ranker said. "Whatever this is… it's bigger than just necromancy."
Suho nodded. "It always has been."
Jinho gave the three others a look. "You've got guts. I hope it's enough."
Then he turned and walked away, vanishing down the mountain path.
Silence fell.
"So…" Mirae said at last. "What now?"
"We form a team," Suho said.
"Do we get a name?" Minho asked, only half-joking.
Suho thought for a moment. "No guild. No sponsors. No name."
"We're strays," Hojin murmured.
"We're hunters of the forgotten," Mirae added with a faint smile.
Suho opened his Necrosystem map. Several off-grid gates pulsed faintly—D- and C-tier anomalies, areas ignored or passed over by major guilds.
"We start where the big ones won't look. Forgotten gates. Unclaimed territory."
Minho nodded. "That's where we get stronger."
Mirae cracked her knuckles. "Let's show the world what real growth looks like."
The Necrosystem pulsed.
[New Team Formed: No Affiliation]
[Rogue Path Activated: Sector 9 – Forgotten Subway Gate]
[Mission Parameters: Train, Rebuild, Stabilize Echoes]
[Team Synergy: Emerging]
As the sun dipped below the skyline and city lights flickered on in the distance, Suho and his three new comrades descended the mountain.
They were not guild hunters.
They were not recognized.
But they had chosen this path freely—together.
And beneath the ashen sky, four souls walked into the darkness.
Not as survivors.
But in the future.