The transport didn't feel like a vehicle.
There were no windows.No visible engine.Just a long, silent corridor of dark metal, humming with restrained force.
Han Yoo-Jin sat among other awakened individuals, none of them speaking. Some stared straight ahead. Others clenched their fists as if afraid their powers might leak out by accident.
He understood the feeling.
Ever since the subway incident, the pressure inside him refused to fully settle. It didn't surge wildly anymore, but it never disappeared. Like a coiled spring wrapped around his awareness.
A woman across from him suddenly gasped.
The air thickened around her seat.
Before anything could happen—
A sharp snap echoed.
The pressure vanished.
She slumped forward, unconscious.
No one reacted.
A calm, emotionless voice filled the corridor.
"Unauthorized activation suppressed."
Yoo-Jin swallowed.
This isn't a shelter, he realized.It's a filter.
Minutes—or maybe hours—later, the corridor opened.
Stone replaced metal.
They stepped into a city that did not feel alive… yet was far from dead.
Towering structures rose in perfect alignment, carved directly from dark gray stone. No decorations. No signs. No noise. The air itself felt measured, restrained.
[Location Identified: Stone-Quiet City][Jurisdiction: Nyrath Dominion]
The moment Yoo-Jin crossed the threshold—
Something brushed against his mind.
Not an attack.
A scan.
His vision blurred for half a second.
[Notice: External Law Detected]
He stopped walking.
Others didn't.
A man two steps ahead activated a flame-type ability—barely a spark.
The reaction was instant.
The air folded inward.
The man collapsed, screaming as invisible pressure pinned him to the ground.
No guards appeared.
No weapons.
Just the city itself enforcing its will.
A tall figure stepped forward from between the buildings.
Humanoid. Pale. Eyes without pupils.
"Nyrath Law," it said calmly."Rule One: No expression of force within city limits."
The man was dragged away.
Yoo-Jin forced himself to breathe.
So this is what real power looks like.
Not strength.
Authority.