Chapter 29 – The Cracks in the Glass
The world around Joon seemed like a glass sculpture — delicate, beautiful, but dangerously close to shattering.
The deeper he ventured into the heart of the dystopian city, the more distorted it all felt. Streets stretched longer than they should. Faces blurred. Laughter echoed with no source.
Joon's steps grew heavier, and Rin, walking beside him, felt it too. Sohyun lagged behind, her hand brushing against walls, leaving a faint trail of crimson marks. Even Kyun, ever the optimist, was quieter now, his head low.
It wasn't just exhaustion.
It was the feeling that they were being watched. Studied. Judged.
They stopped before a building unlike any other they had seen — a towering spire, covered in polished mirrors that reflected nothing but darkness. No sky, no faces, no hope.
"This...this place wasn't on the map," Kyun muttered, voice trembling.
"It wasn't supposed to be," Joon replied, his voice hollow.
As they entered, the world behind them disappeared. The door closed with a sigh, and the building swallowed the last bits of light.
Inside, corridors twisted like veins. Every few meters, they passed statues — eerie, humanoid figures frozen mid-scream or mid-reach, as if trapped between life and death.
Joon clenched his fists unconsciously. (He didn't even realize it.)
"Not real, not real," he whispered.
But his mind-reading ability buzzed like static — like thousands of voices clawing to be heard, but none making sense.
Rin touched his arm. "We should move quickly."
They sprinted through the winding halls, the floor cracking beneath their feet, the walls groaning.
But no matter how fast they ran, the exit never appeared. The corridors twisted back on themselves like a labyrinth designed by someone who hated hope.
And then, they found her.
A silhouette stood in the middle of the hall. A girl.
Hair flowing like ink, eyes burning like dying stars.
It was Minji.
But...not the Minji they knew.
Her eyes were hollow, her smile too wide, her posture too rigid.
"You shouldn't have come," she said in a voice that was not hers.
Joon's heart dropped.
Before anyone could react, Minji raised her hand — and the walls responded.
They cracked open like jaws, spewing black mist that twisted into monstrous shapes.
"What the hell is happening?!" Kyun shouted, pulling Sohyun back.
Joon didn't answer.
He couldn't.
He felt it — the Wish Stone's lingering presence. The distortion.
This was the Architects' trap. A test. A warning.
---
FLASHBACK — A few days ago (unknown to Joon)
The girl who had summoned Joon — the mysterious figure from the beginning — stood before a council of Architects.
She clutched the Wish Stone tightly, her knuckles white.
"You know the cost," the lead Architect said.
"I do," she whispered.
Her wish was simple but devastating:
"Bring someone strong enough to change this world...even if it destroys him."
The Wish Stone glowed, and the price was paid.
Joon was ripped from his time, hurled into a nightmare he could barely comprehend.
And her memory was erased from him...by the Architects' will.
---
Present
Joon staggered as another wave of black mist rushed at them.
The statues they had passed earlier began to move, their stone fingers flexing, their mouths opening in silent wails.
"We can't fight this," Rin said, pulling a dagger from her boot.
"We don't have to fight," Joon said, his voice low.
He closed his eyes.
His mind-reading ability surged, burning through the noise, cutting through the Architects' lies.
One thought remained clear:
"Find the center. Break the illusion."
"Follow me!" Joon shouted, running toward Minji.
But as he ran, the floor shattered beneath him — and he fell.
He fell through darkness, through memories not his own.
---
Joon landed hard in a garden.
A garden he recognized instantly — the garden from his old world.
The place where he first dreamed of leaving, first wished for more.
A voice whispered behind him.
"You wanted to save them...but you couldn't even save yourself."
Joon turned — and saw himself.
But twisted.
Cold.
Broken.
His own doppelgänger sneered.
"You're not a hero. You're a tool. A puppet. You think these powers make you special? They make you their slave."
Joon stumbled back.
"No...no, that's not true."
"Isn't it?" the dark Joon whispered, stepping closer.
"Why else do you forget every face you meet? Why else do you never care enough to stay?"
The guilt Joon had buried deep inside clawed its way to the surface.
He remembered —
the faces of the villagers he failed to save,
the smiles he ignored,
the cries he dismissed.
All because it hurt too much.
All because caring was dangerous.
And here, in this broken garden, he had no defenses left.
Joon fell to his knees, gasping.
The darkness closed in.
---
Meanwhile, above
Rin, Sohyun, and Kyun fought desperately against the living statues.
Every strike shattered stone — but every statue that fell, two more took its place.
"We can't hold them forever!" Sohyun screamed.
Kyun shielded her as best he could. "Where's Joon?!"
Rin narrowed her eyes at the center of the hall, where the floor had collapsed.
"He's down there...and he's fighting something worse than us."
Without hesitation, Rin leapt into the hole after him.
---
Inside the garden
Joon barely registered Rin landing beside him.
"Joon," she said urgently, grabbing his shoulders, "this isn't real!
You're stronger than this."
He shook his head weakly.
"No...they're right. I'm broken."
Rin slapped him.
Hard.
The sound cracked through the garden like thunder.
"You're human!" she shouted, tears in her eyes.
"And you're allowed to hurt! But you're not allowed to give up.
Not after everything we've survived. Not after everyone who's believed in you."
Joon looked up.
For the first time, he saw the cracks in his dark doppelgänger's form — like a mirror starting to shatter.
Hope stirred in his chest.
He stood.
The darkness roared, trying to pull him down.
But Joon raised his hand — and the Wish Stone's power flickered in his veins.
Not as a weapon.
Not as a curse.
But as a reminder.
He still had a choice.
He always had.
With a yell that shook the very roots of the illusion, Joon punched through the dark version of himself.
The garden shattered into a million shards of light.
---
Back in the real world
The statues crumbled.
The black mist evaporated.
And Minji — the real Minji — collapsed, unconscious but breathing.
The corridor straightened, and for the first time, a clear exit appeared ahead.
Joon helped Rin to her feet.
They exchanged a look — tired but alive.
"Let's get out of here," Joon said, his voice steady again.
But even as they walked toward the exit, a single thought gnawed at Joon's mind:
"If this was just a test...what horrors still wait for us outside?"