By Zephyria 
“Kuh…!”
Dane contorted his face, tearing off the plank in front of him with his bare hands. Haa, haa. His breath, ragged with tension and fatigue, wouldn’t calm down easily. It wasn’t difficult to find a place where a bomb might be. After reaching the area he expected and frantically scanning around, he noticed that only one building remained intact in its place. To be precise, a part of the wall was standing upright, and that sight felt foreign to Dane.
Most of the surrounding buildings had collapsed. Among these flimsy temporary structures, the exterior wall, which seemed to have been given special attention, was an eyesore. Dane immediately ran to it and rummaged around the base of the wall with his hands.
After pushing aside the fragments of the collapsed partition, the rubble, and the dust caused by the explosion, a large door hidden beneath was revealed. Descending the stairs in a hurry, he found a fairly sturdy wooden box in the basement. The considerably large box was close to the wall, and he couldn’t help but think that something was inside.
Dane immediately clung to the box and tried to tear it open with his hands. If there wasn’t the possibility of a bomb inside, he would have shot it to pieces, but that was impossible now.
“Damn it!”
Cursing, he stepped back and looked around again. Luckily, he saw some tools scattered on the floor. He picked up a shovel among them and used the shovel head as a lever, inserting it into a corner of the box and pressing down on the handle with his foot to push it up with all his might. After several attempts, he felt the nails coming loose. Seeing that a gap had widened to some extent, he immediately threw the shovel away and lifted the plank with his bare hands.
“Ugh…!”
Clenching his teeth and exerting his last bit of strength, the plank came off with a snap. Immediately throwing away the now useless piece of wood, Dane immediately looked inside.
As expected. He thought. As expected, there was a bomb inside with a timer set. For some reason, the bomb, tied to the timer, couldn’t be lifted. Dane realized that it was connected to something through a hole in the bottom of the box. And Dane soon realized why the box was attached to the wall.
It’s beyond the wall.
Dane slowly raised his head and looked up at the large rock wall. A huge pile of bombs installed beyond the wall seemed to enter his eyes.
“What do you mean Dane went to defuse a bomb?”
Grayson’s voice rose. Joshua tried to remain as calm as possible and spoke.
“Just what you heard. Those bastards planted a bomb in the mountain. Dane went to defuse it.”
“Why? What for?”
Grayson asked again, pressing him. Joshua, looking strangely at his anxious expression, replied.
“The team that came to save you went in a different direction. Don’t get excited, Dane might be wrong.”
“Why would he go if there’s a possibility he’s wrong?”
“Because there’s a possibility he’s right.”
Joshua felt extremely tired at the fact that he had to put such an obvious answer into words. Raising a hand as if to calm him down, Joshua continued.
“I’m in charge of you, and Dane is in charge of the bomb. We’ve just divided our tasks. So there’s no need for you to be this agitated.”
Let’s go down now, Joshua was about to say. But Grayson turned around and started climbing the mountain before he could even say that. Of course, Joshua couldn’t just leave him alone.
“Stop, what are you doing?”
He immediately chased after him and grabbed his arm, but Grayson violently shook it off.
“Let go, and stop playing games.”
Despite the harsh tone, Joshua didn’t back down at all and instead blocked his path.
“No, Dane entrusted you to me. So you have to listen to me.”
“Get out of my way!”
“Cut it out!”
Joshua shouted, unable to bear it any longer.
“Is this the time to be stubborn? What can you do? Do you even know where Dane is? If you go, you’ll just wander around the mountain and collapse. He knew you’d be like this, so he knocked you out and entrusted you to me. Do you think he’d be happy if you went to find him? Get a grip, what Dane wants is for you to go down the mountain with me and get treatment! Right now!”
Grayson faltered at the harsh shout. Joshua’s words were completely correct. Grayson, who repeatedly opened and closed his mouth, protested with a terribly distorted face.
“Are you saying we should just leave Dane in danger and go down peacefully?”
“Dane knows a lot about bomb disposal.”
Joshua spat out in a cracked voice.
“He entrusted it to him because he believes he can do it. Are you saying you don’t trust Dane?”
It’s not a matter of trusting or not. It’s just that he can’t go down comfortably. He remembered Dane’s figure as he jumped into the building where the explosion occurred that day. He didn’t look back even once, and he ran without hesitation.
It must have been the same this time as well.
Grayson could imagine it so easily. His disappearing back in an instant.
“Why.”
The words flowed out of his mouth on their own.
“Why did you go? If there’s a bomb, you should run away, why did you bother going back?”
Grayson’s voice gradually became mixed with resentment. Just as he was about to explode with frustration at his stuffy heart and Dane’s incomprehensible thoughts, Joshua opened his mouth.
“Because there will be a landslide.”
Grayson paused for a moment.
“…What?”
To the question asked after a pause, Joshua replied expressionlessly.
“If the last bomb explodes, there will be a landslide. Then this village below will be buried as it is, and everyone will die.”
Grayson blinked blankly. It took a little more time to understand Joshua’s words.
“…Huh.”
A dumbfounded sigh flowed from his mouth.
Just because of that.
Click, the clock turned off. The remaining time was 58 seconds. Haa, Dane let out a sigh of relief and wiped the sweat from his forehead with his arm.
“It’s over……!”
He muttered like a sigh and sat down on the floor. He was so nervous that his head was about to ache. Now he could rest assured. No matter how much of the bomb was behind him, it was useless. Heh heh, a laugh leaked out on its own. Aah, he stretched both hands back, supported himself on the floor, and leaned back, muttering.
“I really refuse to do volunteer work.”
Grayson might be awake by now. Josh must be having a hard time alone. Anyway, that guy, Dane shook his head, but there was a smile on his face.
Shall we go down now?
He was about to get up, thinking that he should scold the disobedient puppy. That’s when the clock that had suddenly turned off lit up again. In the moment of surprise, the seconds began to move again in Dane’s vision. 57 seconds. 56 seconds. 55 seconds.
“What is this…”
Turning pale, Dane hurriedly sat down again and frantically examined every part of the bomb. Where is it? What went wrong? The clock had definitely turned off. Where on earth…
At that very moment, an irritating mechanical sound rang out from above his head. Distorting his face and raising his head, the sound stopped and then a man’s voice came out.
You think you’ve won?
Dane paused at the unexpected voice. As Dane hurriedly looked around to find the source of the sound, the man chuckled above his head.
No way. You lost.
After saying this, he changed his voice and began to pour out words solemnly.
God says. The kingdom of heaven is near. God says. Punish the demons and their followers. God, see my faith. I offer you a sacrifice, open the gates of heaven to me and cut off the breath of those wicked people and send all the sins of the world to hell…
“You son of a…”
Dane cursed, turning pale. But he just kept reciting ridiculous prayers. He looked around, but it was no use. He must have recorded it from the beginning. To prepare for this situation, to laugh at the relieved opponent after exerting all his strength.
Just like now.
Offer your last prayer, follower of evil. Your body is the last atonement offered to God.
At the man’s words, Dane reflexively turned around. The numbers on the timer were decreasing one by one.
9 seconds. 8 seconds. 7 seconds.
Hell, hell! Fall into hell! Burn forever in the fires of hell……!
Time continued to tick down.
6 seconds. 5 seconds. 4 seconds.
The man began to laugh wildly as if he was out of breath.
Haa, hahahaha, haaahahahaha…….