Doooot… dooot…

"Hey,"

"'sup, Oppa."

"Are you doing alright?"

"Geez! Haha, you worry too much… oh yeah, that's right!"

"?"

"Remember that school trip I told you about? The ski resort?"

"Oh. What about it?"

"The trip's tomorrow!"

"Nice, have fun. Call Mom and Dad before you leave, and during your trip too."

"Yeah, yeah."

"Anything else you want to tell me, Jinah?"

"Nope. I'm gonna call Mom now."

"Okay, good-night."

"'night! Tell your girlfriend I said hi."

"Fiancé. I proposed to her last week, I believe I told you and our parents about it."

"Yeah, sorry I forgot. Anyways, later."

Jin-woo put his phone back in his pocket. He had to finish up a case report.

Today was a big day for the whole department; the new guy, Jin-woo, caught a serial mugger today, one that had been eluding the police for a while. And in his month at that! And even more mysteriously, the criminal, in handcuffs, begged the other officers to be imprisoned. There were no signs of abuse or injury on the criminal, so other officers did ask Jin-woo what happened, his only answer being that the criminal ran to him and begged to be arrested. The guilty man agreed to the story.

That was good and all, but he still had to fill out the paperwork. He looked at the clock. 3:00 PM. Still a lot of time before he goes home.

"Welcome home!"

"Hey," Jin smiled.

Right when he had unlocked the door, Hae-in burst out and hugged him, like an explosion enveloping a target.

Looking inside, it seemed that she had already cooked dinner.

"Yeah, I'm home," Jin said, smiling.

Cha Hae-in had started to make regular visits lately, and it gave him quite a warm feeling and a sense of security with having her around, especially when he accompanies his seniors on some heartbreaking cases.

"Hae-in? I love you," Jin-woo said suddenly.

The recipient blushed, looking away for a moment.

"Geez! What are you saying!? I swear, you just say these things out of nowhere!"

He just smiled, looking at her. Hae-in figured he was expecting something. She leaned in and pecked his cheek.

"Me too."

The next day, Jin-woo was at work during a coffee break. He looked out the window, thinking about his sister. The sky was clear here, but said to be cloudy over there. Today was the day of her field trip, but a cloudy sky shouldn't be anything to worry about.

Jinah called Jin-woo and their parents, telling them that she was leaving this morning. He wasn't particularly worried about her, but sent Beru with her just in case, of course without her knowledge. He didn't exactly know why he chose Beru instead of one of his weaker shadows who could have done the job, but it was probably a spur of the moment choice or something like that. Or maybe it was an ominous feeling he had, tugging at him.

She rode the bus at seven and was to arrive at her destination at around nine. It was around eight right now. Jin-woo smiled while drinking some juice. He hoped he was having fun.

Suddenly, he felt a chill, a sense that a void had appeared within him. Like one of his shadow soldiers disappeared. It was similar to when one of his soldiers was caught by the Beast Monarch, his presence slowly diminishing. But this time, instead of disappearing, it just felt… far. He looked through the shadow soldiers within him: Igris was at home, along with some other shadow soldiers, his beast soldiers were all in the realm of the Eternal Slumber… Beru. He had confirmed earlier in the day that where Jin-ah was should be snowy with cloudy skies. But when he looked through Beru, he saw that outside the bus windows, it was a clear sky with grass everywhere, no snow, dark clouds, or even roads to be seen!

He suddenly heard a voice. From the shadow himself.

My Liege…

Beru, where are you? Jin-woo questioned.

Even I do not know, my Liege. The sky was dark… clear.

Beru?

Our connection… cut… hurry.

I'll get to you as soon as I can.

Ah… something terrible… coming…

With this, their connection was forcibly cut.

Beru? Jin-woo called. Beru!

Not even his presence could be detected. Something terrible was coming? He needed to hurry, he needed to talk to the Rulers.

Right as Jin-woo started to rush out of the break room, a voice broke in.

"Ah, Jin-woo-ssi."

He faced the source of the voice. It was one of his seniors, standing at the entrance of the room.

"Uh… are you alright? You look a little pale."

"Ah, no sir. It's nothing."

"Well alright. Just gonna grab some coffee," the senior said as reached for the instant coffee packets.

"Jin-woo-ssi!" Another voice called for him from outside the break room.

"Yes?" Jin-woo slightly nodded towards his senior and walked towards the person who had called him. When he arrived, he saw one of his peers and a tall, blond man in a black suit.

"This man came in, asking for you," he explained to Jin-woo. "Someone you know?"

He instantly recognized him. Not from sight, but he could feel it. Something almost no human in the world could know about: mana. And an enormous amount at that. The kind of mana he was emanating was also a clear indication as to his true identity. He was a Ruler's Vessel.

"I'm sorry for interrupting your work, Mr. Sung Jin-woo," the Ruler's Vessel started, "but we have to talk about something urgent, and I would prefer to have this conversation… elsewhere."

Jin-woo looked behind him. His senior, peeking out, waved his hand, signaling him to go outside if he needed to. Following the Vessel, he walked outside. When they were somewhere behind the building, the Ruler started speaking, " The Rulers have observed a spatial anomaly that happened some time ago."

"What kind?"

"A hole between space appeared, and disappeared."

Jin-woo's face darkens. "Do you know who's behind it?"

"…No. This is… an unusual case. Instead of there being an intruder, a group of people disappeared. By someone from the other side."

Jin-woo started to feel a dread he hadn't felt in a long time. A dread he hadn't felt since he had died during his fight with the Monarchs in the previous timeline.

"Where did it occur?"

"Japan."

Jin-woo's heart sank and his eyes widened. It can't be… However, even if they had been transported, he should be able to feel Beru somewhere, even when he was in another dimension with his far-reaching connection with his shadows. A simple teleportation into a different world didn't explain his loss of connection with Beru.

"So… the teleportation happened in Japan. On the day my sister goes on a field trip. And I can't contact one of my shadows who happens to be with her. Do you think they're connected?" His eyes became sharper, dangerously looking into the Ruler's Vessel for answers, unintentionally.

The Vessel felt a sudden sensation in his spine, a sign to be as discreet and thorough with his answers as he could. "We are not…certain where the teleported people might have been transported to, but we do know one interesting thing about it."

Jin-woo raised his eyebrow. "What is it?" he asked.

"Well," the Vessel started to elaborate. "We know that the means of teleportation is different from what we use in this world. Normally, when we traverse worlds, we create a rift through dimensions and enter, like how you returned from the dimensional rift all those years ago. Yet, this one… this one was as if someone from a lower level made a hole in a specific place so their targets could fall in it, instead of appearing and dragging the victims themselves as how the other Monarchs then would have done."

"A lower level? What do you mean?"

"If you can't contact your shadow, this could mean that the perpetrator could possibly be from another multiverse, one with another Creator, another set of worlds and another set of rules, though such a thing had only been a theory… until now."

"And by 'lower level', that means that there's a universe spatially below ours? One not made by the Absolute Being?"

"Correct. However, the existence of levels could also mean that while falling down is easier, climbing your way up is more difficult and consumes more energy, in what we have theorized so far. And more so the more things you carry, though you should be able to bypass that by leaving some of your shadow soldiers behind here, thereby leaving a link for you to channel through."

Jin-woo closed his eyes however it was not to decide his next course of action as it had been decided the moment his sister was involved. No, it was to plot out how he would handle transporting her and her classmates and teacher, and to think about the possibility of meeting someone as dangerous as he was. However, as previously mentioned, his next course of action was already decided.

"Alright," Jin-woo concluded, reopening his eyes. "So how can I find her?"

"We… don't know," answered the Ruler's Vessel. "Her destination could be next to our universe or very far. The only direction we know is below us, judging by where the hole was in the instant we found it. And it can't be too far, seeing that the hole was even created. It will also take time for us to find a way to tear a hole through our multiverse to go to another, and also find our target multiverse. We can shorten the time by creating a space where time outside of it flows at a slower rate. However, we would also need your help."

Jin-woo stared at the person in front of him, as if contemplating how to solve a puzzle, to the point that the Vessel started to get nervous. Finally, after some time, the Shadow Monarch asked him, "How about just descending and using my connection with Beru to see how close we're getting? As you said, it can't be too far."

"I mean, you could do it." the Ruler answered. "With your abundance in mana, you should be able to find her this way."

Pausing for a moment, the strongest Monarch steeled his resolve. It wasn't even a question, he had to do this.

"So," he spoke, "how do we start?"