“Yeah. That’s right.”

Dokgo Jun’s answer came as no particular surprise.

If someone else had been requesting help, they would have left additional messages beyond the photograph.

Seo Kangrim spoke in an even tone.

“Why did you send me a message?”

“Because you didn’t show up.”

The reply came before Seo Kangrim had even finished his question.

Dokgo Jun answered with a broad grin.

“I waited four whole days, but you were nowhere to be seen. Can’t have a story without its protagonist, now can we?”

“…….”

“Are you angry?”

“No. I’m not fond of your motives, but thanks to you, at least I learned that Ms. Shin Sooa was in danger.”

Annoying as it was, he decided against reproaching him.

Rather than berating Dokgo Jun, Seo Kangrim posed a question instead.

“How did you acquire a Space-Time Dispatch? They’re quite expensive.”

“Ah, sorry. That’s a secret.”

He could have easily lied, yet the fact that Dokgo Jun chose to call it a secret nagged at him faintly.

It almost seemed as though he wanted Seo Kangrim to ask again, but Kangrim let it be.

He merely speculated that perhaps Dokgo Jun had received help from a god.

With no further questions, he fell silent—until Dokgo Jun broke the quiet himself.

“Seo Kangrim, do you know where the Saw Bone Room draws its inspiration from?”

“Hell, isn’t it?”

“Oh, you already know. That’s right. It seems each Demon Realm takes its motif from one of the hells.”

The seven Demon Realms within the Education Facility were modeled after the seven hells.

Though not identical in form, they maintained a certain thematic consistency.

Saw Bone used the characters for saw (鋸) and bone (骸).

In other words, it meant sawing bones apart.

“In the Saw Bone Hell, sinners are sawed alive. And most of the people who come here have saws attached to their bodies.”

Seo Kangrim couldn’t understand why Dokgo Jun was explaining all of this in such painstaking detail.

He listened in silence as Dokgo Jun continued with fluid eloquence.

“At first, I thought the placement of the device was random. But someone told me an interesting story.”

Dokgo Jun spoke as though he were thoroughly enjoying himself.

His gaze fixed on Seo Kangrim’s neck.

“Seo Kangrim, to have saws strapped across your entire body… just how much karma have you accumulated?”

A brief silence followed.

Only the metallic scent of blood from the prison drifted through the stillness.

Seo Kangrim stared at him without answering, then opened his mouth.

“What exactly are you talking about?”

“The Saw Bone Belt’s position changes depending on your karma. The more karma you’ve accumulated, the more critical the placement.”

He raised both of his hands as he spoke.

The Saw Bone Belts clasped around them like shackles came into view.

“I’ve got my fair share of karma too.”

The number was fewer than expected, which surprised Seo Kangrim.

He had assumed someone like Dokgo Jun would at minimum have saws strapped to all four limbs.

“And apparently, the more karma a person carries, the stronger their shadow becomes.”

He wished it were a lie, but it was an undeniable fact.

That was precisely why Seo Kangrim had intended to enter this place last.

Last time, he had stolen the fates of over four hundred people, accumulating a massive amount of karma in the process.

If shadows grew stronger in proportion to one’s karma, there was no way to gauge just how powerful his own shadow would become.

“So what is it you’re trying to say? Are you here to condemn me?”

“Hm? No. I just find it interesting.”

Most people, upon learning that someone had accumulated such vast karma, would respond with contempt or fear.

But Dokgo Jun’s eyes merely gleamed like those of a reader eager to turn to the next page.

“You go around pretending to be virtuous, yet you’ve got enough karma to get your head sawed off. I just couldn’t help wondering what kind of story lies behind that.”

He stared intently at Seo Kangrim as he spoke.

“I’m curious. What kind of person are you?”

“A criminal.”

“That can’t be right.”

He laughed as though he’d heard a joke, but Seo Kangrim’s expression remained rigid.

Dokgo Jun’s eyes sparkled as he spoke.

Like a child eagerly anticipating a pleasant picnic day.

“I can’t wait to meet your shadow.”

* * *

Dozens of monitors lined the wall of the vast Observation Room in a neat row.

The monitors displayed footage of the Saw Bone Room.

Video feeds streamed from cameras installed in each room of the Demon Realm.

Just as the rooms came in all varieties, so too did the people within them—and their reactions.

Some fought against their shadows; others tried to kill the originals instead.

“Thank goodness we were granted permission to observe the final Demon Realm.”

Amid the many people passing through the Observation Room, Joo Sungtae, standing in the back, spoke up.

Gongju, standing beside him, offered no reply, her sharp eyes fixed on the monitors.

Her gaze was locked on a single point.

The Saw Bone Room—prison area.

Seo Kangrim sat at the prison entrance, standing guard.

Joo Sungtae spoke with a note of dissatisfaction.

“The more I observe Seo Kangrim, the less I understand him.”

It was unusual enough that he had entered last in Zone 2 and caught up to the others within a single day, but something else stood out even more.

The Saw Bone Belts strapped around his neck and all four limbs.

Even after scanning every other monitor, there was no one else burdened with nearly as many saws.

Ahn Nabi, standing nearby, spoke while flipping through documents.

“According to our investigation, there was no criminal record.”

Gongju remained unresponsive even to Ahn Nabi’s report.

She simply kept her eyes on Seo Kangrim.

She muttered quietly.

“What could he have possibly done to shoulder that much karma?”

“Murder, perhaps?”

“Killing one or two people wouldn’t accumulate that much.”

There was no way to guess what he had done to amass such karma.

Whatever Seo Kangrim had done, it certainly hadn’t been anything good.

At the suggestion that he hadn’t killed just one or two, Joo Sungtae’s face paled slightly.

“……Are you really planning to bring someone like that into the team? He could be a criminal.”

At that question, Gongju turned to look at Joo Sungtae.

The upward slant of her eyes appeared all the more severe.

“Joo Sungtae, why do you suppose the Bureau Director instructed us to include a karma provision in the final Demon Realm?”

“Pardon? Well, that is to say…….”

Flustered by the sudden question, Joo Sungtae quickly cleared his throat and answered.

“No matter how skilled an awakened one may be, if they have character flaws, they’re dangerous. So wouldn’t the karma penalty have been added to filter such individuals out?”

As Joo Sungtae said, no matter how exceptional someone’s abilities were, using them for criminal purposes would defeat the entire point of training cadets.

The Fate Protection Bureau existed to protect both awakened ones and non-awakened alike.

In response to Joo Sungtae’s answer, Gongju spoke in a detached voice.

“You’re half right.”

“Excuse me? Only half?”

Joo Sungtae looked at Gongju with a bewildered expression.

As if to ask what other reason there could possibly be.

“If the goal were simply to filter out those with karma, it would have been more logical to do so at the very first stage.”

To invest months of effort cultivating someone, only to exclude them at the very end for having karma?

That would be an egregious waste of time.

While the final stage did impose a penalty based on karma, it simultaneously granted a full week of leeway.

Gongju continued speaking, her voice steady and impassive.

“If shadows grow stronger in proportion to accumulated karma, people will naturally try to kill the originals instead.”

“Yes, I suppose that would be the case.”

“But even with accumulated karma, if someone is stronger than their shadow, the story changes entirely.”

Gongju glanced at another monitor.

It showed Yoon Bom, Yoon Gyeoul, Father Yohan, and Jang Taeheon frantically searching through the Demon Realm.

“If an awakened one has the skill to clear the Demon Realm despite the penalty, there’s no reason for us to turn them away.”

“B-but what if Seo Kangrim causes trouble….”

“Do you really think the Fate Protection Bureau can’t control a single awakened individual?”

Joo Sungtae fell silent at those words.

No matter how strong they were, these people were still trainees.

They couldn’t compare to the Death Messengers who had trained behind the scenes for years.

“If Seo Kangrim is eliminated here, he’ll be nothing more than a sinner burdened with karma. But if he makes it through….”

The corners of Gongju’s lips twisted with avaricious intent.

“It means he’s a criminal well worth using.”

* * *

The grinding screech of a saw blade reached their ears.

At the same time, Yoon Bom let out a short gasp of pain.

“Ugh…!”

She clutched her ear, wincing.

Red blood trickled down the back of her neck in a steady stream.

Despite her painful cry, the saw blade continued to bore slowly and relentlessly into her flesh.

Like a starving beast.

“Damn it. This hurts like hell…!”

Jang Taeheon, who had been searching the Demon Realm alongside them, likewise gripped his own hand in agony.

The saw blade had already sunk halfway into his fingers—to the point where they could be severed at any moment.

“Is everyone all right?”

Seo Kangrim, having noticed something was wrong, approached them.

Yoon Bom tried to smile through her contorted expression.

“Yes, I’m fine. It just hurts a little….”

【She’s lying. There’s no way it’s just ‘a little.’】

【Remarkable that she’s holding up while being sawed alive.】

【Her ear’s about to come clean off.】

True to their words, Yoon Bom’s wound was quite deep.

Blood ran down her hand and soaked into her sleeve.

The Saw Bone Belt, which had been operating incrementally over the past several days, now had blades visibly protruding.

Jang Taeheon’s fingers were cut to the point where bone was visible.

Seo Kangrim urgently handed cloth to both of them.

As they pressed the cloth around their wounds, it quickly stained crimson.

‘The bleeding is severe.’

Seo Kangrim surveyed the area and moved.

They were currently searching what appeared to be a Medicine Room.

The presence of usable medicinal herbs was a relief, but the numerous drawers meant checking each one took considerable time.

Seo Kangrim retrieved hemostatic herbs and sprinkled them over the wounds as he spoke.

“I know it hurts, but only use a styptic. Don’t use recovery potions.”

Using a recovery potion to fully heal while the saw blades were still embedded would cause the flesh to fuse with the Saw Bone Belt.

Both of them knew this well and nodded.

“Still, sprinkling the medicine helped a lot. Thank you, Master.”

Yoon Bom said with a faint smile.

Thanks to the styptic, the bleeding had mostly stopped, but neither of them looked well.

Then again, who could remain perfectly fine while having parts of their body sawed off while fully conscious?

“……Another day and they really will come off.”

“Well, yeah. But even if they do get cut off, it won’t kill you, so don’t worry too much.”

Jang Taeheon spoke with feigned calm, but he couldn’t entirely mask his pain.

An ear or a few fingers weren’t life-threatening injuries, but there was no way having parts of one’s body sawed off wouldn’t be agonizing.

‘Shin Sooa and Dokgo Jun won’t die from this either, but….’

Shin Sooa had a belt on one arm, and Dokgo Jun had belts on both wrists.

Dokgo Jun wouldn’t care whether he lost both hands or both feet, but if Shin Sooa’s arm were to be severed….

He gripped his sword tightly.

‘I need to get everyone out of here today.’