FSA 87

Gooooo-.

At that moment, Yohan felt an intangible groan imperceptible to human hearing. Unable to withstand the onslaught of purification power piercing the core like a comet, the monsters fell away in droves. The light burning within Yohan’s eyes dripped sparks like those from welding.

Yohan’s energy and the core’s energy mixed and were released, with repulsive black and white patterns surging all around. Each time Yohan’s light pierced like a wedge, black Flood juice dripped from the core. His back grew more chaotic, but to Yohan’s ears, only the silent scream of the Abyss’s core was audible. The core pulsed and writhed irregularly.

At that moment, Yohan instinctively felt that he was the Abyss’s disease, its ultimate poison, its natural enemy.

“You’re nothing….”

A chilling voice, unbelievable as his own, flowed out. Like the anger Seo Yakrin harbored, fierce hostility towards the being before him surged instinctively. With a feeling that was almost ecstatic, he plunged the light he held within his body into his enemy. He pushed and crammed his way in, somehow. Something warm trickled from his nose, but he didn’t register it.

The sound of the colossal Abyss’s core cracking and twisting could be heard. Lethal toxic miasma was flowing in, inflicting irreversible damage. New energy poured out of Yohan’s body in a steady stream. It was an unbelievable amount, considering how depleted he was from protecting his teammates.

Suddenly, Yohan wondered. Where was all this energy coming from? At that moment, a faint voice barely reached his ears.

“Yohan… no more….”

Lee Chan-ha was desperately clutching his ankle, as if to crush it. Only then did Yohan tear his gaze away and look back. At that moment, he met crimson eyes that gazed at him greedily. Crack, snap! The sound of the Abyss’s core cracking echoed. Blood gushed from Yohan’s mouth as well. Though dizzy and unable to stand, he stubbornly gripped the spear lodged in the core.

“Just a little… more….”

He gasped for breath, but his body seemed to be draining of color. No, blood was actually pouring from his nose and mouth. Immersed in adrenaline, Yohan belatedly realized he had pushed himself too hard. The energy he had been pouring out was his life force. The hand gripping the spear trembled.

It would really only take a little more.

But a soft, fleshy mass shot up from the floor and enveloped Yohan’s body. Centipedes, Monstrous Birds, living ice—they lunged, coveting the red blood flowing from Yohan’s body onto the floor. As they licked greedily and bared their fangs.

A silent wave shook his head.

This way, inside, hungry… inside, deeper inside, endlessly, hungry, inside, inside, lonely, down, down, down….

Someone’s thoughts flowed intermittently into his mind. Rumble! Thunder sounded. But it wasn’t the thunder Lee Hyun-mook produced.

As Yohan lifted his head, the ceiling of the Abyss’s core was collapsing. The nest of evil, maintained steadfastly for an immeasurably long time, was crumbling. It was a desperate struggle to take action, no matter the cost, upon sensing a fatal danger.

Before that could happen, Yohan turned his head again, determined to destroy the core even if it meant death. But the mass of Lee Chan-ha’s flesh, which had already climbed to his upper body, tightened around the hand holding the spear.

“No…!”

With a shrill scream, Yohan let go of the hand gripping the spear. The moment the light was cut off, the Abyss’s core seized the opening. Crack! With a sound of something breaking, it fled among the swarming monsters and the collapsing ceiling.

As Yohan despaired, the ceiling completely caved in, and something poured down with a crash. They were eternally unchanging meteors of light. Yohan, staring blankly at the Eternal Stones that fell in an overwhelming amount, filling the core of the Abyss, felt a shadow fall over him.

Only then did Yohan realize the presence of something familiar and terrifying. The companions who had crawled in, greedily coveting Yohan’s blood, screamed. It was due to a fear that overwhelmed even their maddened minds. As Yohan looked up in bewilderment, Lee Hyun-mook’s immeasurable darkness swallowed them all.

In a vague state, unsure if he had lost consciousness or was maintaining it, Yohan barely registered his condition. The first sense to feel something amiss was sight.

‘I can’t see anything…!’

Even with his eyes open, everything was pitch black. It was as if he were blind; he couldn’t see a single thing. The next thing he registered was the absence of touch. Flailing his body, he realized he was standing on nothing. The third thing he registered was the absence of weight. Gravity had disappeared, so he couldn’t tell which way was up or down. Nothing touched his fingertips. Lastly, he registered the absence of sound. Overwhelmed by a surging fear, Yohan screamed. But he heard nothing.

It felt as if he had been thrown into an empty void where nothing existed. Screaming continuously in suffocating fear, Yohan suddenly stopped. A tiny, faintly shimmering bead floated before his eyes. Only then did Yohan realize it was his own tear.

Having barely regained his composure, Yohan brought his hands, which had been groping in the air, closer. First, he touched his wet face to confirm, then fumbled over his body. None of his limbs were missing; they were all intact. After confirming his existence by touching his body, he finally regained the mental space to think properly.

‘What happened.’

He had entered the core of the Abyss and attacked the unknown core. He had barely managed to lodge his spear in the core, but everything collapsed before he could completely shatter it. His teammates’ sanity and will, the core of the Abyss, and Yohan himself….

And finally, the dark, immeasurable, terrifying thing—Lee Hyun-mook—swallowing Yohan and his teammates into the shadow all at once.

‘So, is this inside Lee Hyun-mook?’

Is this truly inside a living person? Yohan slowly looked around the invisible surroundings. He couldn’t believe this space, which seemed infinitely empty without anything visible, was subordinate to someone.

If it were only that, he wouldn’t be this scared, but he felt a gaze from somewhere. It was the strange gaze of a certain being, seemingly very satisfied.

‘Scary….’

He trembled so much from fear that he didn’t feel any disappointment or frustration about the failed attempt. He cried out loud, but the more he cried, the more scared he became because he couldn’t hear his own sobs. He wanted to release purification power, but his body was completely empty from squeezing it out in the core of the Abyss. Thus, the small, bead-like tears falling from his eyes were all he had to rely on. In the faint light of his tears, he could barely make out his own fingers.

“Hyung, Hyun-mook,” Yohan called out desperately. Hoping the gaze watching him from all sides was Lee Hyun-mook’s, he cried and called again. He was crying his eyes out, so much so that he felt he would wither and die from crying. As he cried, something touched his back amidst the firefly-like twinkling of his tears.

It felt like the tip of a giant finger, a soft, gentle breath, or the softest, most tender skin that enveloped his waist and shoulders. The other party was human, yet there was an unfamiliarity that didn’t feel human, and Yohan froze stiffly.

He still heard nothing. But he felt a gentle presence soothing him, calling his name. A comforting tenderness, both strange and familiar, physically caressed his body. His body, which had been floating like an abandoned lost child in the universe, finally gained weight and slowly sank downwards.

This time, something touched his feet. It wasn’t ground or soil, but the mere fact that he could stand on it brought a greater sense of stability. Yohan, trembling, took a couple of steps and then sank down. He remembered that the monsters swallowed by Lee Hyun-mook’s shadow had not reappeared. It was likely a result of Lee Hyun-mook’s will, but he couldn’t help but feel scared. Suddenly, Yohan realized he could hear his own ragged breaths. He tried making sounds, “Ah, ah.”

“Hyun-mook hyung, thank you for saving me….”

Yohan, his voice trembling, expressed his gratitude and fumbled over what was enveloping him. What was this? It felt smooth and soft, like skin, or perhaps like an internal organ, but no matter how much he felt it, he couldn’t grasp its shape. He couldn’t tell what body part it was.

His body trembled, but it didn’t seem to be just from fear. His mind kept drifting, and he couldn’t muster any strength. He felt as exhausted as if he had run a marathon all day.

“I’m thirsty….”

Leaning against the soft thing that enveloped him, Yohan mumbled, half-lying down. For some reason, as he sank lower, a thirst and hunger he hadn’t felt before washed over him. His eyelids kept drooping, and his body felt heavy. Suddenly, he began to break out in a cold sweat for no reason. He was still panting when.

“Huh?”

Something moist touched his lips. Yohan flinched at the sensation of his parched lips being moistened. Reaching out and fumbling, he felt something dripping with moisture slowly caressing his lips.