In the next instant, Lee Sa-young was standing in the white desert where heavy snow fell. The people skillfully dissecting a monster were gone, and so was J, dragging a corpse away.

Sa-young looked around. No footprints, no trace of life. Uijae must have arrived before him, but if there was no sign at all…

…Did he land somewhere else?

He clicked his tongue. Pressed a throbbing temple. The gruesome scenes still flickered before his eyes. What he’d just witnessed was clearly Cha Uijae’s memory. Surely from within the West Sea Rift.

“……”

But why had he seen Uijae’s memories, not his own? At least there was one explanation that came to mind. Sa-young stripped off his black glove. Across the long scar on his palm, a chain of gold flickered faintly.

The mark of a contract that could never be broken. Blood that had seeped through each other’s palms, laurel vines twined tight around their hearts. The sensation of ice flooding his body when he saw Uijae cough up blood during the pact was still vivid.