The Weapon Genius: Anything I Hold Can Kill

"You," Gugwe-mok rasped, voice layered with wet bark and wind. "I thought your kind stayed hidden in stone."

Aestros didn’t answer at first.

He stood still, towering, unmoving, a statue sculpted from broken foundation and burning will. The red lines pulsing along his arms and chest cast flickering light across the field of ruin.

His voice came low. Measured. Like the grind of bedrock beneath the earth.

"I’ve watched long enough."

Gugwe-mok snarled. Its limbs twisted, coiling and flexing against the hands that pinned it, but the stone would not yield. "Then you should have stayed buried."

"You should have stayed in root," Aestros replied. "But here we are."

The forest-beast let out a hiss, low and cold. "You don’t understand. I didn’t want this. I didn’t choose destruction."

"You chose survival through it," Aestros said. "There is no difference."

A pause.

A gust of wind tugged at the scorched vines hanging loose from Gugwe-mok’s body.

"I was born beneath the oldest tree," it said. "In a glade untouched by road or fire. When the system fell, it reached into the places people had forgotten. Into us. And it told us the truth."

It leaned forward, eyes burning. "Adapt. Or be consumed."

"And so you consumed others instead," Aestros said. His voice didn’t rise. It didn’t need to.

"I lived," Gugwe-mok said.

"You defiled," came the reply.

A long silence stretched between them.

Then Gugwe-mok’s tone changed—sharpened. "You act so righteous. So sure of your footing. But I know your kind."

"You don’t."

"I do," the forest-beast hissed. "Stoneborn. Solar-blooded. You draw strength from light. From sun. You’ve come too early. You are not yet at your peak."

The red lines along Aestros’ limbs flickered, as if acknowledging the truth.

But he said nothing.

Gugwe-mok’s voice took on a bitter edge. "You waited all this time and still chose to strike before the sun has fully risen. You’re weak. Slower. This isn’t a duel, it’s suicide."

Still, Aestros didn’t move.

"You’re gambling," the forest-beast sneered. "But what will you do when your strength fails and the sun does not rise in time?"

Finally, Aestros moved, just his head. A slow tilt downward. The crimson hum beneath his body pulsed once, steady.

"If the sun does not rise," he said, "then it is not my death I fear. It is what I allowed you to do to this city that was not ready for your arrival."

Gugwe-mok recoiled slightly, not from the words, but the weight behind them. "You would give your life for these pathetic humans? For their broken streets and hollow buildings?"

"I was not born for them," Aestros said. "But I will protect them nonetheless."

"That’s your mistake," the beast spat. "You still serve. You still obey a system that will erase you the second it has no use left for your kind."

Aestros raised his gaze to the horizon, where the sky had begun to shift. Faint streaks of pale orange stretched over the shattered skyline.

"I serve the task because it gives me meaning," he said. "Not because it gives me favor."

"That’s not strength," Gugwe-mok growled. "That’s delusion."

"No," Aestros said quietly. "That is choice."

The vines rippled with sudden tension.

Gugwe-mok’s voice dropped to a growl. "You can’t kill me. Not like this."

"I do not need full strength to strike down something that has already been weakened by those pathetic humans, you called them."

"You arrogant relic."

"You desperate shadow."

Their voices cut across the burning field, one earthen, one wild. Both ancient.

Then Aestros stepped forward.

Still holding Gugwe-mok’s arms in the grip of his summoned limbs, his true body approached slowly, the ground cracking beneath each step.

"I remember you," Aestros said, quieter now. "You were one of the first to be touched. One of the first to evolve."

"I survived," the beast hissed again. "You call that shame. I call that victory."

"You call it victory..." Aestros repeated. "Yet here you are. Alone. Forced to show your true form. Corrupted from purpose."

Gugwe-mok’s jaw twisted. "There is no purpose. Not anymore. There is only the system. And I will not be erased by it."

"You chose the wrong side, then."

And with that, Aestros raised one arm.

The earth answered.

A low rumble echoed across the broken city. Debris lifted. Red lines burned through the soil, circling outward from beneath Aestros’ feet.

And Gugwe-mok, though it snarled, though it lashed, did not break free.

"You can’t do this," it said, voice trembling now.

"You gave yourself to the forest," Aestros said. "And then you tore the forest down."

"I only wanted to live."

"You already had life," Aestros said. "You wanted more than what you needed."

The vines screamed.

The red light flared.

Aestros raised both hands.

"I grant you an end not rooted in failure. But in finality."

"Then do it," Gugwe-mok rasped.

A beat.

And Aestros answered.

"So be it."

The words echoed like a verdict, ringing out through the battered ruins of the city.

Aestros moved.

No wind-up. No roar. Just a single step forward, and then the ground cracked open beneath him, red veins of molten energy spiraling outward like living arteries. The force he summoned surged into the massive arms holding Gugwe-mok in place.

The forest beast thrashed violently, vines flailing, bark-skin pulsing with green light, but the stone didn’t budge.

Aestros extended one hand, and a lance of earth and heat shot upward from the ground, a spear of fused obsidian and tempered fire, forged not in a forge but in purpose.

And then he drove it into Gugwe-mok’s chest.

The impact made no sound at first.

Then the sky answered.

A shockwave tore through the street, shattering windows in buildings that hadn’t already collapsed. The point of impact bloomed with burning red, swallowing the twisting, writhing mass of Gugwe-mok’s torso. Vines spasmed outward, lashing at the air, but they were directionless now, frenzied, broken signals echoing through a dying system.

Jin could only watch as the titan of the forest, this myth dragged into flesh and vine, began to crumble.

Gugwe-mok didn’t scream.

It simply... fractured.

The body split down the center. The green glow dimmed. Vines shriveled mid-air. Bark cracked and fell away like dried mud. Its arms sagged in the stone grip. The colossal body, once towering and defiant, sagged under its own weight.

And then—

It collapsed.

A mountain falling. A temple ruined.

Chunks of bark and rotted vine came crashing down, slamming into buildings, kicking up clouds of dust and smoke.

"Move!" Seo barked.

Jin didn’t need to be told twice. He bolted, leaping over a crumbling slab of asphalt as it cracked beneath him. Behind him, Joon and Echo scattered in opposite directions, helping Chul and the others pull back fast enough to avoid being buried.

The building beside them groaned and gave way, vines finally cut loose from whatever core had been sustaining them, and collapsed in a tangled heap of steel and moss.

When the shaking stopped, Jin looked back.

Nothing remained where Gugwe-mok had stood.

No body. No pulsing core. Just fallen stone. Severed roots. And Aestros, standing alone in the fading red light.

The stone figure’s arms fell to his sides.

He didn’t speak.

Not aloud.

But Jin heard it, clear, deep, resonating from somewhere not in his ears, but inside his chest.

"Come visit... when you get the chance."

Jin blinked.

And Aestros was gone.

Like dust exhaled into the morning wind, his form crumbled, each part folding into the cracked earth until only the scorched ring of red remained. A quiet brand left behind in the soil.

Jin exhaled, his breath shuddering.

He barely had a moment to process before the system responded.

[Quest Complete: City Defense — Gugwe-mok Encounter]

[Status: SUCCESS]

[System Assessment Underway...]

A faint chime echoed inside every survivor’s head, soft and rising like the beginning of a song.

[Contributions Calculated. Rewards will be distributed accordingly.]

[New Titles, Skills, and Experience Pending Assignment.]

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