**The statue's eyes glowed blue as it stepped forward**, centuries of ice shattering from its limbs. What Min-jun had thought was carved stone revealed itself to be a man—or something that had once been a man—encased in a self-imposed prison of frozen chi. His skin was the color of weathered granite, his beard woven with tiny icicles that tinkled like wind chimes as he moved.
**"Sinner,"** the figure repeated, voice like grinding glaciers. **"You bear the Rot. You bear the Brand. You bear the weight of dead worlds."** His glowing eyes narrowed. **"Why have you come?"**
Min-jun's breath fogged in the thin mountain air. The Eclipse Rot had spread across half his face now, pulsing in time with his heartbeat. **"The Third Form,"** he rasped. **"Before the Ascended finds me."**
The man—the master—threw back his head and *laughed*, the sound echoing off the peaks. **"You think the Third Form is some sacred scroll? Some whispered secret?"** He leaned close, and Min-jun saw that his eyes weren't glowing—they were *filled with the same black veins* that now corrupted his own body. **"It's pain, boy. Nothing more."**
With terrifying speed, the master's hand shot out and *plunged into Min-jun's chest—*
—not through flesh, but *through the Brand itself.*
---
**White. Hot. Agony.**
Min-jun's world dissolved into fire and screaming. Visions assaulted him:
- *A thousand warriors standing against the Void, their fists shattering mountains*
- *The first Ascended, their golden masks cracking as the Rot consumed them from within*
- *Xia—younger, human-eyed—watching as her masters burned*
The master's voice cut through the visions: **"The Third Form is not a technique. It is *acceptance*."**
Min-jun's back arched as the Rot *surged*, flooding his meridians. Where before it had been an invader, now it *settled*—coiling around his bones like an old friend.
The master withdrew his hand. **"Now you see."**
Min-jun looked down. The black veins remained, but the pain... the pain was gone. In its place was something worse:
*Hunger.*
---
**The temple shook.**
Snow rained from the ceiling as a distant *boom* echoed through the mountains. The master sighed. **"She always did lack patience."**
Min-jun didn't need to ask who. The Rot whispered it to him:
*Xia.*
**"She's leading them here,"** he realized.
The master nodded. **"She believes the Rot will make you strong enough to kill the Ascended. She's half-right."** He turned toward the temple's inner sanctum. **"Come. There's something you must see before the end."**
---
**The inner chamber** held a single artifact:
A *gate.*
Not like the ones Min-jun had seen before—this one was small, barely large enough to crawl through, its frame carved from the same obsidian as Liao's daggers. Inside its ring swirled not the Void, but...
*Earth.*
Min-jun saw his old apartment. His dojo. A hospital room where a woman who looked like Soo-ah slept beside an empty bassinet.
**"The first gate,"** the master said. **"The one that started it all."**
Min-jun reached out—
—and the temple *exploded.*
---
**Stone and snow rained down** as the Ascended floated through the ruined wall, Xia limp in its grip. Her tattoos were burned away, her silver hair matted with blood.
The master sighed. **"Hello, old friend."**
The Ascended's mask cracked open:
***"Traitor."***
Then it *ripped Xia in half.*
---
**Min-jun moved.**
The Third Form unfolded *itself*—his body a conduit for the Rot's terrible power. Where before he had fought with precision, now he fought with *abandon.*
His first punch shattered the Ascended's mask.
His second *ruptured* its chest.
The third—
The master caught his wrist. **"Enough."**
Min-jun snarled, the Rot begging for release. **"It killed her!"**
**"And now it will die,"** the master said calmly. **"But not like this."** He turned to the crippled Ascended. **"You remember the price, don't you?"**
The Ascended *screeched*—
—as the master *shoved it into the gate.*
The explosion of golden light blinded Min-jun. When his vision cleared, the gate was gone. The master was dying. And the Rot...
The Rot was *singing.*
---
**The master slumped against the wall**, his granite skin crumbling to ash. **"Now you understand. The gates are not doors. They're *seals.*"**
Min-jun's brand burned. **"And the Rot?"**
**"The key."** The master smiled as his body disintegrated. **"Go home, boy. Your family needs you."**
Then he was gone.
And Min-jun was alone.
With the Rot.
With the power.
And with *one last gate* shimmering into existence before him.
---
**TO BE CONTINUED...**