Lee Sung froze, his mind racing. Jin's bowstring was pulled taut, the arrow gleaming ominously in the sickly green light.
"Why are you doing this, Jin?" Lee Sung asked, keeping his voice steady despite the adrenaline surging through his veins.
Jin's expression was unreadable. "Orders," he said simply. "There's a bounty on your head now, Lee Sung. Someone powerful wants that artifact you're carrying — and they're willing to pay dearly for it."
Lee Sung's grip tightened on the journal hidden inside his cloak. Helios. It had to be him.
"I'm not your enemy," Lee Sung said calmly. "We both want to survive this nightmare."
Jin's fingers twitched on the bowstring. For a brief moment, doubt flickered across his face — but then it hardened again. "Survival comes at a price."
Before Jin could release the arrow, a low rumble shook the ground. The rocky terrain cracked open, and sand poured into the fissures like a living thing. From beneath the broken earth, strange, whispering voices echoed, chilling and seductive.
Jin staggered, lowering his bow slightly. Lee Sung felt the unnatural pull as well — an insidious call to lay down arms and surrender to the earth itself.
"The Wraithsand," Lee Sung recalled from Akane's journal. "A cursed phenomenon. It preys on the mind, pulling your soul into oblivion."
Without wasting a second, Lee Sung summoned his shadows. They surged upward, forming a barrier between him and the cursed whispers. Jin, however, was already faltering, his bow dropping from his hands as he clutched his head in agony.
Lee Sung acted on instinct. He rushed forward, grabbing Jin by the arm and yanking him out of the shifting sands. Jin struggled weakly, but the Wraithsand was relentless, tendrils of ghostly mist reaching for them.
"Get it together!" Lee Sung shouted, dragging Jin away from the crumbling ground.
Finally, they collapsed behind a cluster of jagged rocks, gasping for breath. The sandstorm howled in frustration behind them, but for now, they were safe.
Jin looked up at Lee Sung, dazed and ashamed. "You... saved me," he muttered.
"I'm not interested in killing you," Lee Sung said firmly. "We need to work together, or we'll both die out here."
For a moment, silence stretched between them — and then Jin nodded reluctantly. "Fine. A truce. For now."
Lee Sung offered a hand, and Jin took it. As they pulled themselves to their feet, Lee Sung couldn't shake the feeling that the real challenges were only just beginning.
Far ahead, looming in the distance, were the ancient ruins — a labyrinth known as the Catacombs of the First Summoned, where the third test awaited.
And somewhere in those ruins, hidden beneath layers of deception and danger, was a fragment of truth about the artifact — and about Lee Sung's destiny.