By Zephyria Suddenly, a faint singing voice was heard by Yohan’s ear.
Hushaby, a pitiful smiling face, a campfire blooming in the field, swimming twinkling stars, a silent dawn, rolling beads, a mouse nest, counting grains of sand, whispering rose bushes….
Without even feeling like sinking, his ankles were submerged. Then, when his knees were submerged, Yohan, who had been shedding tears endlessly, lifted his head. He roughly clutched his wounded arm. His mind snapped awake with pain. The flesh that had been moving softly on the floor, upon the dripping blood, frantically accepted it, and climbed up, constricting his arm for the purpose of stopping the bleeding.
Using his own blood to make his nerves numb, Yohan tightly gripped the spear’s hilt. The purification power, which seemed completely depleted, gathered at Yohan’s spear tip and shone ecstatically. Yohan recalls the time he delivered a fatal blow to the core of the Abyss.
He thrust the spear he had raised high towards Lee Hyun-muk’s Eternal Stone. However, it was by no means intended to harm the opponent.
Yohan’s spear went precisely into the spot where fragments had fallen off.
At the moment it fit perfectly as if no crack had ever been there, an explosive light burst forth. The stopped resonance boomed, echoing through the depths. As he saw the chaotic black and white light engulfing everything, Yohan closed his eyes. His consciousness was pulled away, dizzily, somewhere….
A nightmare, a recollection, dreamt hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of times more….
…….
….
The sorrowful cries of the youngest were heard. Lee Hyun-muk pressed his brow due to a headache that felt like his skull was splitting. It had already been over a month since they fell into the Abyss. This place was more horrific than they had vaguely imagined.
There was no proper food or drink. Monsters swarmed everywhere, making it difficult to find a safe haven. As the Corruption intensified, wounds did not heal easily. The mental abnormalities, called Negative Reinforcement, grew stronger. Everything was heading towards the worst.
“Stop crying! Crying won’t solve anything!”
Seo Yakrin, who had been banging his head against the wall, yelled out in anger. Joo Ho-young, who had been crying about wanting to go home and how his legs hurt so much he wished he could cut them off, flinched and then cowered. He looked pitifully emaciated. It was because he had endured without drinking or eating anything. As an intermediate awakened, he was still surviving, but how long could this last? Would they lose the youngest first? Lee Hyun-muk, despite his headache-induced suffering, wondered miserably.
“Sorry for getting angry, youngest…”
Seo Yakrin apologized out of self-loathing, then soon groaned, tearing at his hair. His skin was covered in blotchy spots. As if that weren’t enough, his arm had undergone severe deformation, making it impossible to even hold a weapon properly.
Lee Hyun-muk knows what will happen next.
Joo Ho-young will not die, but he will become more desolate and cold, becoming intangible. Seo Yakrin’s arms will soon transform into wings and he will fly away. Still, compared to the other team members, these two were relatively better off.
The sound of greedy chewing had been heard from a while ago. Yoon Seung-ryong was huddled in a corner of their shelter, tearing into something delicious. Black bodily fluid dripped from the torn flesh, soaking the floor and emitting a foul odor. His headache intensified, making him want to rip his head off. Staring into space, Lee Hyun-muk muttered.
“Seung-ryong…. You’ve already eaten a lot.”
“Heh, heh…. Did I? Did I eat already? When did I eat? But I’m so… hungry?”
Yoon Seung-ryong grinned, laughing happily. He was one of the two currently suffering from the most severe Corruption. Of course, in this place, the more one ate, the worse the Corruption became. As Lee Hyun-muk approached, Yoon Seung-ryong twisted his body and shouted as if barking.
“Don’t touch it! It’s mine! Mine! I’m going to eat it all!”
Among food, marrow was particularly dangerous. So, he snatched the remaining bones and threw them out of the building. Yoon Seung-ryong flew into a rage. Even as he hurled all sorts of vulgar curses at him, Lee Hyun-muk watched calmly. Soon, Seo Yakrin reacted to the curses.
“Hey, you son of a bitch! Are you the only one living here! Shut up! Be quiet! You damn piece of shit! Just go die!”
Soon, the two clashed fiercely. Bones broke and flesh was torn. Lee Hyun-muk walked slowly and forcibly separated them. Joo Ho-young’s sobbing grew louder. However, perhaps because he hadn’t drunk any water, no more tears flowed from his hollow eyes, which had been dry for days. He was merely feigning tears, watching for an opportunity to escape this place, and holding back.
The most serious among them was Lee Chan-ha. She was huddled in the furthest, darkest corner, covered by a blanket. She always had to keep it covered. Otherwise, Lee Chan-ha would have a seizure and try to peel off all her skin. Lee Hyun-muk stared into space with vacant eyes.
My team members. Those he was responsible for protecting safely.
However, the Abyss was too difficult a place for even the most skilled intermediate awakened to survive.
■Hyun-muk knows what will happen next.
Strangely, it was as clear as if he had already experienced it. His precious team members would gradually lose their minds, to the point of forgetting their human forms. No matter how much he protected and nurtured them within him, shaping them into human forms, no matter how much he protected and nurtured, protected, they would continue, continue, continue….
■■muk knows what will happen next.
Wishing for death, leaving only Lee Hyun-muk here alone. Eventually, they would become impossible to keep together, and would have to be torn apart and stored in various places. And Lee Hyun-muk alone, solitary, lonely, would wander this hell, continuing only the days when he occasionally checked if his deranged team members were alive….
He watched his team members fighting like hungry ghosts with a dazed gaze. Shouldn’t he take measures before it became too painful? For instance, by putting the team members to sleep and placing them in the safest place. There was no safe place in this Abyss, so perhaps within himself….
■■muk knows what will happen next.
Then, there would be no more pain, nor loneliness. It was when his will-infused shadow rippled.
“…Found you!”
Suddenly, a cheerful voice rang out.
At first, he thought it was auditory hallucination or illusion. However, through his team members’ reactions, Lee Hyun-muk confirmed that they were seeing the same thing. It was… a person who was perfectly fine.
In this Abyss, everything soon became tattered and dirty. It became twisted and distorted. Nothing, neither objects nor people, remained unstained. Yet, this young man who suddenly appeared and found them was simply endlessly clean. And above all, he was radiant and sparkling. Lee Hyun-muk could not tear his gaze away from the other person.
This was not the first time he had seen someone suddenly dropped into this horrific hell. However, most of them were civilians, so by the time they were found, they were either dead or, if alive, died within a day. They looked like soldiers, but their deaths were akin to suicide, no matter who looked at them.
But this one was different from those people. The other person did not seem unhappy even in this hell. Even if it were bipolar disorder from Negative Reinforcement, his eyes were clear and pure. His eyes, which slowly scanned the team members, were a little red, but he was simply spirited, without shedding tears.
“Hello, I am Yang Yohan. I am a Purifier, and I have come to save you from here!”
It was an absurd statement. Yet, the first to react to this absurd statement was Joo Ho-young. He, who had been wary of the newcomer, rushed towards Yohan in a panic. He clung to the other person with his emaciated body, crying out desperately.
“H-uh, really, you came to save me? Me! I want to get out of here! Please let me out! I want to go back! I want to go home!”
He clung so desperately that his clothes were torn. Yang Yohan slowly extended his hand towards Joo Ho-young, as if treating a frightened animal. At some point, a shimmering light appeared in that hand. Light flickered in Joo Ho-young’s eyes as he looked up at the hand. Soon, the light slowly permeated Joo Ho-young.
First, his leg, which had recently undergone severe deformation, became normal. The chronic pain that had tormented him day and night, preventing him from sleeping properly, vanished completely. Extreme anxiety and fear also subsided as if washed away. The suddenly appearing Purifier smiled at Joo Ho-young.
“Are you okay now?”
Joo Ho-young, who had been staring blankly at Yohan, suddenly burst into tears. This time, they were not fake tears. Despite his emaciated body, devoid of moisture from not having drunk a drop of water, he shed sorrowful tears from somewhere.
“Can I… really go home? Can I… really go back? Did you really come to save me?”
“Yes! I really came to save you! You can really go home!”
The one who answered confidently then purified Lee Chan-ha, who was in the corner. He poured brilliant light over the blanket and carefully removed it. It was the vice-captain who, disgusted by his dirty and repulsive state, had peeled off his own skin, and then writhed and groaned day and night in agony and horror. He looked down at his now normal body. Then, he looked up at Yohan, stunned.
Next, he purified Yoon Seung-ryong, who was on the verge of swallowing concrete fragments due to endless gluttony, and Seo Yakrin, who had resorted to self-harm due to surging anger. Finally, he turned to Lee Hyun-muk.
Even though he was seeing him for the first time, Lee Hyun-muk recalled tears welling up in the other person’s eyes. Imagining tears, containing tiny lights, falling, felt incredibly precious. However, the other person, still not crying, slowly approached Lee Hyun-muk. Then, he embraced him tightly. He exhaled a trembling breath, scattering shimmering light.
A moment later, Lee Hyun-muk also placed his hands on the other person’s back. He hugged the sudden savior, who had appeared in a way he had never imagined, with all his might. It felt as if it were all a dream.