Chapter 1349: Forcing A Change (Part 1)

Inside Gary’s apartment, one thing was immediately, unmistakably clear: he was gone. And not in any ordinary way.

The window was wide open.

Curtains flapped like anxious flags in the breeze, as if still reacting to the moment he had thrown himself out.

Kai and Xin were inside, pacing fast, frantic, flipping through papers, tossing pillows, scanning every object as if it could whisper where Gary had gone.

“Why would he jump out a window in the middle of the night?” Xin muttered, scanning the room again for the hundredth time. “That’s not panic. That’s urgency.”

Kai pressed a hand to his forehead, trying to calm the rising panic in his chest. “Did he say anything to you? Something that didn’t sound important at the time but might be now? Any hint at all?”

Xin shook her head. “Nothing specific. Just that voice he said kept talking to him… in his head. Over and over. He never mentioned a place.”

They had turned the place upside down by now. Still, it was like Gary had popped in, sat down for five seconds, and then launched himself out the window like a man possessed.

Kai gritted his teeth. “Think. Think. He wouldn’t just disappear without a plan. Unless… wait.”

He paused, staring off into space as something flickered behind his eyes.

“There was this story,” he said slowly. “Gary told me about it once. It was… actually about you.”

“Me?” Xin blinked, surprised.

“Yeah. He said there was this one time, you were kidnapped. No one knew where you were. But Gary could tell something was wrong. He felt it. So he started tracking you.”

Xin frowned, the memory knocking loose from the back of her mind. “That… did happen. A long time ago. But I thought it was my brother who, ”

“It was both of them. Your brother and Gary. But Gary was the one who picked up your trail. He used your scent. Took a piece of your clothing and followed it, street by street, until he found you.”

The moment settled between them like a new gravity.

“If he’s in danger now,” Xin said slowly, “then we owe it to him to do the same.”

“I just hope,” she added with a smirk, “he didn’t take something too embarrassing of mine to sniff.”

Kai chuckled, the first trace of humor cracking through the stress. “Knowing Gary? He probably grabbed the first thing he could find. But that’s not the issue. We need his scent to track him. And he hasn’t been here in a while.”

Xin glanced around, worried. “So… what now? Do we just hope something of his is lying around?”

Kai raised an eyebrow. “Xin. He’s a young guy who lives alone and barely learned how to adult. Trust me. There’s definitely something with his scent on it lying around here.”

Sure enough, they stepped into his bedroom and saw the evidence instantly: a leaning tower of used clothes dumped right by the bed.

Xin wrinkled her nose. “Gross. Are all guys like this?”

Kai didn’t miss a beat. “Some.” He didn’t elaborate.

“Alright,” Xin said, sighing. “Let’s grab what we need and get out of here.”

Kai picked up one of the socks from the pile. It reeked. Strong enough to sting the eyes. But now wasn’t the time to be squeamish. He took a deep breath in through his nose, fighting the instinct to gag.

And just like that, the trail was real. Faint, but there.

He followed it down the stairs and out into the street, holding the sock up like a bizarre bloodhound.

Xin followed close behind. “Okay, I have to say it. You sniffing Gary’s socks to track him? That’s some elite-level friendship.”

Kai didn’t even flinch. “If sniffing these socks saves his life, I’ll sniff every sock he’s ever owned.”

The look on his face was so serious, so committed, that Xin nearly burst out laughing. She had to cover her mouth to keep it in.

But this wasn’t a joke.

Because out there, somewhere in the dark, Gary was fighting for his life.

Deep in the woods, the air was thick. Every inch of it pulsing with energy, pressure, weight.

The being known as Unzoku moved like a living storm, huge, slow, unstoppable. As he crept forward, the very space around Gary bent inward, squeezing him from all sides. He couldn’t move. Couldn’t breathe.

His body wasn’t listening.

Even as he saw Unzoku approach, Gary couldn’t run. Couldn’t even flinch.

It felt like that moment before, when Unzoku had placed a mark on him, altered him, poisoned him with celestial scent. But now it was worse. Like his entire body was being rewritten.

‘This isn’t right. I was ready to run. I was. But it’s like… I’m trapped inside myself.’

‘He knows. He knows I don’t want to fight Lupus anymore. That my heart isn’t in it. He could feel it. He’s doing this on purpose. From the very beginning… he planned this.’

Unzoku towered over him now, arm outstretched.

In the center of his palm, a glowing mark appeared, a wide, single eye surrounded by bat-like wings, stretching outward and alive with power.

It began to glow.

And then, unleashed.

A pulse of energy, sharp and blinding, tore through the air and into Gary’s body. It wasn’t fire, it wasn’t lightning, it was pure will, raw and ancient.

“You dragged me into this,” Unzoku growled. “And now you make it worse. I’m the last of us still stuck in this realm, and you are making my job unbearable.”

The screams started again.

Not from the forest. Not from Unzoku.

From inside Gary’s own mind.

Agonized, echoing, endless screams. They circled like storms behind his eyes. Each one felt like a jagged knife slicing deeper into his sanity.

Gary wanted to scream with them. Part of him was screaming.

Unzoku’s voice cut through it like steel.

“You’ll break. Then I’ll twist the rest of your pack. Show them their true nature. The beasts beneath their skin.

“You could’ve taken out Lupus, a stranger you barely knew, and been the last one standing. But no. You hesitated. For what? For kindness?

“That’s why power like this shouldn’t be given to children.

“But be grateful, boy. Between the two of you, I chose you.”

The surge continued. More pressure. More heat. More pain.

Until, something cracked.

And the energy that had been flooding into Gary suddenly burst outward, exploding from the soles of his feet, shoving back the leaves and shaking the earth.

A system message flickered into view:

[Resistance to Celestial Energy has been activated]