FSA 89

“…Ah!”

Yohan’s breath began to pant again, though he was no longer crying. It felt as if he were being caressed by dozens of tongues and lips. His fingers, fumbling aimlessly in the air, were licked away one by one. His body temperature rose, and his heart pounded rapidly.

“Hyun-mook Hyung…”

Without even realizing he had moved away from the Eternal Stone that had revealed his terrible memories, Yohan panted with feverish breaths. What is this? What could it be? It’s truly strange, very strange… but it felt oddly good. His body, half-exhausted and limp, was being squeezed with just the right amount of pressure, making him feel as if he were floating in the air.

Before he knew it, soft, moist extremities had penetrated beneath his clothes. They licked down from his heaving chest to his tensed, rigid lower abdomen, then slipped inside his pants. When his legs were being sucked with such broad strokes, Yohan’s legs curled inward.

“Ugh, ugh…”

The stimulation was so overwhelming that Yohan felt tears welling up. But the feeling was so good that no negative sounds came from his mouth. Instead, he groaned, clutching the extremities caressing his fingers. When his lower abdomen and groin were licked at length once more, a trembling sound, “Aaaah,” escaped him.

“Haa, ng, good… it feels good…”

As his legs were sucked with wet, slurping sounds, Yohan trembled and arched his back. The darkness before his eyes flashed. The sensation of his entire body being licked was too surreal, the stimulation too intense. Was he having a strange dream?

His glans was licked with just the right pressure, and his perineum and pubic area were gently pressed. As Yohan writhed in pleasure, extremities, warm like a human’s, rubbed his rear. As if watching his reaction, they slowly, and deliberately, pushed deeper.

For a moment, he felt a slight resistance, but Yohan did not push them away or refuse. He could only pant breathlessly, fearful yet expectant of an act he had never experienced. Involuntary, sweet moans escaped him. Ah, ah, ah… As his insides were licked, he writhed in pleasure. They pushed a little further in.

“Th-this is strange… Ah!”

They pushed in with a volume and depth that was just short of painful, slowly thrusting inside with a “thump.” They withdrew at a similar pace, then pressed against his inner walls as if licking. They offered an unprecedented pleasure by licking and sucking his soft, tender insides in a way he had never imagined.

“Hyun-mook Hyung… Ah, ah, aah…!”

It felt so good. Could it be this good? Yohan had almost completely forgotten what had happened earlier. After being repeatedly thrust into and licked and sucked both inside and out, his body soon reached an orgasm that felt like it would melt away.

“Haa, haa…!”

His body shuddered as the milky white fluid that flowed out during his climax was completely taken away. The sweat droplets forming on his forehead were also licked away. Yohan’s body went limp, enveloped in a languid, sweet afterglow. His eyelids, already heavy with fatigue and sleepiness, closed completely. In his consciousness, already half-asleep and hazy, a strange lullaby began to play.

Hush now, hush now, a sadly smiling face, a campfire blooming in the field, swimming stars, a silent dawn, rolling beads, a mouse’s nest, counting grains of sand, a whispering rose bush…

Hearing the nonsensical, disconnected lyrics, Yohan’s body grew distant. Drenched in the sweet afterglow, he had forgotten the memory of Lee Hyun-muk he had glimpsed earlier and had fallen into a deep, deep sleep. As Yohan completely lost consciousness, a faint light enveloped his body, illuminating the surroundings.

From the darkness, something distant, endlessly black, and eternally hard wriggled and crawled closer. It grasped the only bright, bright thing, licking and licking again. As if reluctant, it licked to the very end, and then ‘Lee Hyun-muk’ finally…

Yohan, who had been in a deep sleep, woke up with a groan. His body ached. It wasn’t just a simple ache; he felt terribly ill, as if he had the flu. Then, a worried voice called out to him repeatedly.

“Yohan, are you awake?”

When he finally opened his eyes, Seo Yakrin was looking down at him with a worried expression. Seeing that Yohan had regained consciousness, his dark face brightened considerably. As Seo Yakrin stepped back, Lee Hyun-muk’s face also came into view. Yohan lay on soft bedding, as if being held tightly by him. Lee Chan-ha, who was beside them, sighed and said,

“Yohan-ssi, you’ve been unconscious for a week…”

“A, a week…?”

Yohan mumbled blankly, his voice hoarse. The words meant he had rested for a full week, yet his purification power was barely sloshing around, just enough to fill it a little. It was completely empty, wrung out to nothing. Perhaps because of that, everyone’s complexions and eyes looked haggard and dark. Red glints occasionally flashed. They looked like defeated soldiers, barely having managed to pull themselves together while Yohan was unconscious and ill.

“Well, for now… let’s eat something.”

Yoon Seung-ryong, who had finally overcome his lethargy, slowly approached and offered Yohan something like a bland, savory porridge. As he sipped it, his senses gradually returned. However, his body remained limp, refusing to move. Yohan groaned and turned over, lying on his stomach. Joo Ho-young, who had been staring listlessly at his Game Console, asked,

“Yohan-hyung, are you crying?”

“N, no…”

He denied it, but his voice was already trembling. The Abyss was still there, and the strategy they had pursued had ended in complete failure, with no more chances. Thinking that, he couldn’t bear the sadness and disappointment. Yohan, abandoning all shame, burst into tears.

“Hic, sob… I should have tried a little harder…”

If only I had tried a little more, I might have been able to go home. He thought of the core that had collapsed and fled somewhere from the center of the Abyss. Seo Yakrin, who had been sitting anxiously beside Yohan, patted him as he cried face down.

“What are you saying, Yohan? You’ve already tried hard enough.”

“B, but… I, I wanted to go home….”

Yohan cried out loud, feeling even more sorrowful due to his severe illness.

“I really… wanted to go home…. I really… hate it here…. I was almost… sob, sob*… done….”

Yohan, wanting to leave this place with everyone, confessed in a choked voice and wept uncontrollably. Lee Hyun-muk silently pulled Yohan into his embrace and let him cry to his heart’s content. After crying for a long time, Yohan calmed down with sniffling sounds. In truth, he had no strength left to cry. He was just sniffling, burying his face in his lover’s firm, warm chest. Still, after crying his heart out for the first time in a long while, Yohan felt a sense of relief and his ragged breaths began to steady. He flinched.

“You just ate my cheek, didn’t you?”

“No?”

As he said that, he licked and bit Yohan’s swollen cheek again. With a slurping sound as his cheek was sucked, Yohan groaned and lamented.

“You don’t even pretend anymore…”

“Yes.”

“What do you mean, ‘yes’…”

As he grumbled and acted spoiled, shame finally washed over him. While Yohan lay with his face buried in his lover’s chest, pretending to be dead, Lee Hyun-muk patted his back and said,

“It wasn’t entirely without effect, Yohan.”

Only then did Yohan finally lift his head. Looking up, he saw the usual dark red, distorted, swirling, ominous sky of the Abyss. However, something was definitely different. The air felt noticeably lighter and fresher.

If he had to compare, it was as if the harmful atmosphere spewing black smoke from factory chimneys had changed to the exhaust fumes from a road full of cars. The concentration of the sticky, ominous malice that pressed down on his lungs had decreased. Yohan mumbled blankly,

“It really feels like something… has changed.”

“It has. It wasn’t a completely meaningless endeavor. So it was worth challenging, and it wasn’t a failure.”

Is that so? Is that… so? He was still upset and disappointed, but hearing Lee Hyun-muk’s words, it seemed plausible. Although the core of the Abyss had fled, it was clearly not in good condition. Yohan knew he had dealt a critical blow to the Abyss.

Of course, the situation was not entirely positive. Since Yohan’s purification power was near its limit, the team members who had suffered greatly in the Abyss were also in poor condition. They sat huddled around Yohan, like warming themselves by a small campfire, barely maintaining their status quo with the purification energy flowing out.

Lee Chan-ha, wrapped in a blanket she had picked up somewhere, refused to show herself. Yoon Seung-ryong, who was as limp as if he had no bones, remained motionless except for occasionally producing food. Joo Ho-young, his face pale blue, exhaled cold breaths and stared at the Game Console, which wasn’t even turned on. Seo Yakrin, seething with anger, breathed heavily, his respiration unusually rapid. Lee Hyun-muk was in the best condition among them, and Yohan was in the worst.

Yohan spent another week suffering from his illness. Only then did his purification power recover to about half, allowing him to tend to his team members one by one. However, even after everyone’s complexions returned, the atmosphere was far from cheerful. Though they didn’t cry out like Yohan, it was clear that everyone had placed their hopes on this particular strategy.