198 – HGL 198

198

How long had he been standing like that? It was when the warmth filling his arms became as familiar as his own. A heavy weight dropped onto his shoulder. Eui-jae turned his head. The smell of blood mixed with a sweet scent. It was his Sa-young.

“What’s wrong?”

“…Ah.”

“Sa-young?”

“Can’t hold on…”

With those words, mumbled as if complaining, his entire weight fell onto Eui-jae’s body. The arms that had been wrapped around his waist also loosened.

‘What?’

He could hear even breaths near his ear. Eui-jae, dumbfounded, wrapped his arms around Sa-young’s waist to support him.

“Is he sleeping, right now?”

“Hmm…. Looks like his stamina ran out. Finally.”

Lee Sa-young muttered and straightened his body. Eui-jae readjusted the limp Sa-young in his arms. Mysterious lavender eyes scanned Eui-jae and Sa-young. He tilted his head slightly.

“We’ve been fighting for dominance… Me and it.”

“What?”

“Still, he lasted quite a while. For a twenty-four-year-old… with a half Soul.”

Eui-jae’s eyes widened. Not only were they fighting verbally, but they had been constantly battling for territory? He couldn’t hide his disbelief as he asked.

“Seriously… can’t you guys just get along?”

“Get along?”

Lee Sa-young covered his mouth with his fist. The corner of his lips seemed to lift slightly in a smile.

“Isn’t this getting along…?”

“Why is your standard for ‘getting along’ so messed up?”

Eui-jae retorted. Sa-young, in his arms, groaned softly. Damn it. He looked at Sa-young’s face with concern, then suddenly raised his head. Wait, isn’t this an opportunity? There’s no one who knows the second world as well as this guy. Eui-jae hurriedly opened his mouth.

“Come to think of it, do you know Prometheus?”

Lee Sa-young blinked his lavender eyes.

“Prometheus?”

“Yeah. Not chosen by the System, but Awakening with human power… guys with that kind of goal. Ever heard of them?”

“How grand…”

Lee Sa-young, as if pondering for a moment, looked into the air and shook his head. An honest answer came back.

“No. Never heard of them… Not the name of the group, nor the fact that there was a group with such a goal.”

“Are you sure? Were you experimented on or anything? Did you just Awaken?”

“Experiment?”

Lee Sa-young shook his head.

“No way. What I received was treatment. To detoxify Poison…”

“……”

“Then I Awakened. That’s it.”

Cha Eui-jae saved Lee Sa-young. The first world, the second world, the third world. That was an unchanging, immutable fact. But what came after was slightly different. Among them, this world was the most different. That difference was probably….

‘West Sea Rift.’

And Cha Eui-jae’s absence.

Eui-jae, hesitating, asked.

“Do you know what an Invasion Dungeon is? A phenomenon where the Dungeon’s form changes to resemble a Destroyed world.”

“I don’t know what it is, but… I can guess. Even if you tried to block it, there must be some holes you couldn’t block.”

“……”

“My world and your world have the same origin. Originally, this side should have been destroyed and merged…”

Lee Sa-young flicked his finger in the air, and a black mass appeared. The black mass began to turn white from the edges. Just before the black was completely dyed white, Lee Sa-young drew his finger horizontally. The mass split into two: a white mass and a black mass.

“But it couldn’t. The clock wasn’t complete. Because of some quack maker somewhere.”

Hong Ye-seong, with his brown hair tied in a ponytail, waving his hand, flashed in his mind and disappeared. The shout of ‘Friend~’ too. The sight of Cluck flapping its wings as if wronged.

‘That guy was bragging that he restored it this much because it was him.’

Perhaps that was right. He had a feeling. Even if he was a bit crazy, his skills were definitely certain. Eui-jae glanced at Lee Sa-young. Was it because he had been alone for so long, or was it because he lacked social skills? Lee Sa-young’s perception of people was definitely a bit distorted….

Meanwhile, he lowered his black hand.

“Observe.”

The two divided masses floated in the air with a slight distance between them. However, before long, the distance between them began to narrow. As if trying to merge into one. As if returning to the origin. Soon, the area where they touched was dyed gray.

“……”

The bangs that had fallen to his eyes obscured his vision. The color of the hair was….

Gray.

Eui-jae unconsciously touched his own hair. The masses were becoming increasingly sticky and merging into one. The black was gradually turning white. Lee Sa-young, with indifferent eyes, looked at the masses and opened his mouth.

“If the origins are the same, they can’t help but be drawn to each other. Trying to return to the original form is a primal desire… a desire.”

Lavender gaze reached Sa-young, who was sleeping with his eyes closed.

“Just like the me in my world… borrowed another me’s body and crossed over to your world.”

“……”

“Well, it’s something like that. I tried to block the contact as much as possible… but there must have been a connected flow nonetheless. Especially since Dungeons and Rifts are a kind of gap. It would have been easy to create.”

Lee Sa-young swept back his hair. Eui-jae saw it. The black fingertips were faintly transparent. His heart sank.

‘Is he disappearing?’

Before Eui-jae could say anything, Lee Sa-young cut him off. As if he knew what he was going to say. A nonchalant voice said.

“I didn’t plan on staying long either. Another me came running like crazy, so I was just… being a bit mischievous.”

Mischievous? Miiischievous?

Being mischievous twice would kill a person. The sight of him shedding tears he wasn’t shedding on his own, clinging to him, was vivid in his mind. Eui-jae hesitated for a moment, then asked, pretending to choke him.

“…This too?”

“Ah, are you still worried about that?”

Lee Sa-young distorted his face ambiguously, as if smiling.

“When I choked him… I felt the reality of a living body. Without realizing it.”

“……”

“And I wanted to be a bit mischievous with you too. It was fun. Your flailing was refreshing.”

“Am I meat? Fresh?”

“The image I remember is, um. Mostly you covering yourself with a blanket and suffering.”

Damn it. He didn’t expect him to come at him like this. Eui-jae stealthily averted his gaze. But the grumbling didn’t stop.

“Why be mischievous with me? Don’t you know the grace of being saved…?”

“Why else? You left me behind first.”

An unexpected answer came back sharply. Eui-jae quickly came to a conclusion. The longer he talked to this guy, the more he would lose. He could never win. How could he win when he was using a dead person as a shield? Of course, he hadn’t won against Sa-young, who was sleeping in his arms, many times either.

Lee Sa-young tapped his cheek with his finger and muttered.

“From the beginning… it was an unforeseen situation. That I had an ego. Things went a bit wrong.”

“Why?”

“My original plan was to melt into another me’s body. Originally, I wouldn’t have even been aware that we had merged and become one. However… something went wrong and we couldn’t merge.”

The day Cha Eui-jae stabbed the whale’s body with a spear, Sa-young lost consciousness and collapsed. Hong Ye-seong…. Eui-jae muttered.

“Hong Ye-seong… said it was because your Soul was too big. If he tried to forcibly merge you, your body wouldn’t be able to withstand it.”

“Hmm… For a quack, he’s good at getting that right.”

Lee Sa-young, who slandered Hong Ye-seong as if breathing, shrugged.

“Thanks to that, we’re facing each other like this.”

“……”

If coincidences are connected, they become inevitable. Perhaps facing each other like this was also fate. Eui-jae stared into the lavender eyes. Cha Eui-jae was reflected perfectly in the mirror-like eyes.

But that Cha Eui-jae would have been a bit different from himself. Falling ill every time he used his power, swallowing blood alone because he didn’t want to worry others, and yet saving people….

The Cha Eui-jae that Lee Sa-young loved.

Eui-jae hugged Sa-young in his arms a little tighter.

“Lee Sa-young.”

“……”

Lavender eyes blinked. Once again, words that were his and not his flowed out.

“I’m sorry. It seems like I put too much of a burden on you.”

“……”

“But… all those things weren’t meaningless.”

His eyes widened slightly. Eui-jae slowly closed and opened his eyes. It seemed like his voice overlapped for a moment. A smile naturally appeared on his lips.

“We’re facing each other like this.”

“……”

“Thank you.”

A small light flickered in the lavender eyes without light. Lee Sa-young slowly lowered his head. Soon, his black hair nodded slightly up and down. Haa, Eui-jae let out a small sigh. The other him had quickly disappeared. As if he had never been there.

Instead of the other him, he reached out and messed up the hair that was down at just the right height to pat. Broad shoulders shrank.

How long had he been patting? Lee Sa-young, with his hair a mess, slowly raised his head. The sight was quite funny. He opened his mouth, arranging his hair with his black hand.

“Doomsday… comes when it hears the sound that calls it.”

“……”

Eui-jae’s eyes widened. Talking about Doomsday here? Suddenly? Lee Sa-young tilted his head and asked.

“Why the reaction… Wasn’t this why you came all the way here?”

“No, it is… but you’re telling me now?”

“Then be quiet and listen.”

He took off his black coat and spun it once in the air. Soon, the surroundings were enveloped in black walls. In the darkness, he raised a black index finger and held it in front of his lips.

“The more you think about it, the more you talk about it, the more you say it out loud… the faster it will come.”

A sinister voice muttered.

“You better be careful. Because you can’t block people’s thoughts and mouths.”