By Zephyria Wasn’t the first train just enough to fill half the tunnel? But now it seemed to fill almost two-thirds. I couldn’t tell when it had grown so large. Baaaaang! The sound of it rushing towards them was deafening.
Lee Hyun-muk, who had been staring sharply at the subway, gauged the distance between the wall and the train, then leaped up. Yohan’s arms, which had been wrapped around Lee Hyun-muk’s neck, tightened their grip.
Lee Hyun-muk climbed up along the grooves in the wall and hung from the ceiling. The subway rushed past beneath their backs, accompanied by a fierce wind. Yohan’s heart pounded. Given the subway’s size, they would have been crushed if they hadn’t hung from the ceiling.
Lee Hyun-muk didn’t come down from the ceiling and began to move. After moving for a few minutes, bright headlights rushed towards them from the distance again. But this time, the subway was hanging from the ceiling!
A shrill scream escaped Yohan’s mind as he witnessed the surreal sight. The subway, the subway was running on the ceiling. The station attendant in the very front windshield of the subway was driving, hanging upside down. Lee Hyun-muk leaped down silently and nimbly. Then, he turned Yohan onto his side and pressed himself flat against the wall. Only after the subway passed did Yohan realize that Lee Hyun-muk had been careful about his posture so as not to touch his backpack.
‘It’s not a subway….’
He had known it, but it still struck him with a fresh shock. Only then did Yohan realize how strangely he had been mesmerized by that subway. Even though he knew that in this world, ordinary, normal subways and citizens couldn’t possibly exist.
At the same time, he realized that the ‘subway’ was searching the tunnel for Lee Hyun-muk and himself. Tears and screams threatened to erupt again, but Yohan desperately held them back so as not to be a burden to Lee Hyun-muk.
The subway didn’t grow any larger than this. However, perhaps because it couldn’t find Lee Hyun-muk and Yohan, it became increasingly rough and violent. It was like an enraged, excited beast. Lee Hyun-muk maintained his walking pace, being careful not to touch the subway. That’s when it happened.
A sudden, ominous feeling washed over Yohan, sending a shiver down his spine. He creaked backward and looked at the source of the ominous feeling. At the same time, Lee Hyun-muk clicked his tongue and gave Yohan permission.
“We’ve been spotted. It’s okay to make noise now.”
It wasn’t “it’s okay,” but “it doesn’t matter.” As if their walking until now had been solely to avoid being discovered, Lee Hyun-muk began to run. His footsteps, which had been as silent as a cat’s, now grew loud and heavy. He no longer tried to avoid the oncoming subway.
Lee Hyun-muk, running at full speed, charged directly at the subway. Yohan let out the scream he had been holding back. Just as they seemed about to collide, Lee Hyun-muk leaped up. CRASH! A deafening roar and monstrous roars echoed, and Yohan had no idea what he had done.
Kaaaaak!
As the horrific cry echoed through the long tunnel, Yohan finally realized that it was something that mimicked a subway, inducing illusions. The moment of realization, the subway’s strange headlights instantly went out, plunging them into darkness. That’s right. From the beginning, Yohan had simply been in the darkness, not in the light. That’s why, despite the headlights being so intense, they paradoxically weren’t bright….
“Heeuuh….”
In place of the headlights, a grotesque, large red glow flickered faintly. Seeing it made him feel like he would faint, but Yohan held onto his sanity. After being thoroughly beaten by Lee Hyun-muk, the monster seemed to be hesitating, perhaps gauging his opponent’s level. Lee Hyun-muk was in the same state.
The problem was elsewhere. The goosebumps rising on his skin grew unbearably intense, making Yohan tremble. Did Lee Hyun-muk not know?
“L-Lee Hyun-muk-ssi. Behind you, the Flood is….”
“I know. Don’t look back.”
Sssshhh…. The Flood was surging from the far end of the tunnel. And in front of them was a giant monster. As Lee Hyun-muk had said, Yohan held his ground without looking back, but his mouth grew dry. Lee Hyun-muk and the monster were silent. And it was the monster that moved first. Surprisingly, instead of attacking Lee Hyun-muk, the monster turned its body.
“Right… with this size, it must have lived quite a long time. The Flood would be the scariest.”
Lee Hyun-muk muttered in a dry voice as he watched the monster move away with a rumbling sound. He kept a moderate distance from the monster and began to run. Yohan knew, without looking, that the Flood was now right behind them.
Light began to fill the tunnel. However, it wasn’t a bright, radiant light, but a light emanating from the dark crimson, dim source characteristic of the Abyss. Even that was incredibly welcome now. Just a little more running, and they could escape that terrifying Flood.
And just as they reached the destination, the monster blocked the entrance. Utter despair descended upon Yohan’s head. The Flood was now right behind his back. It crept closer, a silent, ominous disaster, almost within reach….
“No, no, no….”
The moment Yohan muttered, gripped by a terror he had never felt before, Lee Hyun-muk spoke.
“I’ll try to get… as hurt as possible, so.”
Even though he heard it clearly, Yohan didn’t immediately understand what Lee Hyun-muk was saying.
“When I can’t… move, run. No more….”
Inappropriately for the situation, a fleeting, cheerful laugh echoed. Then, Lee Hyun-muk whispered coldly.
“…Die.”
And a dark crimson light burst forth.
It felt like wind whipped all over his body, then a powerful impact exploded from his side. Without even a scream, Yohan crashed into something and rolled on the ground. As he gasped for breath, his arm aching terribly, he crawled on the ground. A thunderous roar echoed. Only then did Yohan realize he had exited the tunnel.
KWAANG!
As Yohan struggled to lift his head, he saw a giant, elongated monster coiling against a dark crimson sky. Its repulsive, sticky flesh was covered in large mouths that moved. It was the very part Yohan had mistaken for the subway door. With every opening of a mouth, something wriggled inside, and dark crimson soil poured out.
A monster that dug paths through the soil and devoured its victims, mesmerized by illusions, along those paths. That was the reality of the subway Yohan had been seeing until now.
And now, that monster and Lee Hyun-muk were fighting. CRASH! Another colossal sound echoed. It wasn’t the sound of thunder, but the sound of actual lightning. Rolling far away from them, Yohan finally recalled Lee Hyun-muk’s nickname.
God of Thunder, Emperor of Thunder….
In the Abyss, he had only used his fists and feet, but in his original form, he was someone who wielded weapons and controlled lightning power. However, unlike before he fell into the Abyss, his lightning was no longer a bright light. Dark lightning flashed, striking the monster. But it seemed to enrage it rather than damage it.
When Lee Hyun-muk tore open its shell, the monster tore off his arm. Then Lee Hyun-muk shattered, crushed, and tore it apart in multiple places. Despite the overwhelming difference in size, the Awakened, once considered the strongest in Korea, fought the monster on equal footing. Dark lightning flashed incessantly above Yohan’s wide eyes.
“L-Lee Hyun-muk-ssi….”
Even from this distance, Yohan could tell. The current Lee Hyun-muk was a Madman, out of his mind. No, he was crazier than Yohan had ever seen him. And he was growing crazier. At the sight, Yohan momentarily forgot the pain in his arm.
Had Lee Hyun-muk touched the Flood earlier?
Yohan looked back. The Flood was surging, reaching the entrance, but it wasn’t going beyond it and was receding like an ebb tide.
No, it wasn’t. Lee Hyun-muk wasn’t like this because he had touched the Flood. Didn’t monsters go berserk just by the Flood approaching? Thus, the heavily Corrupted Lee Hyun-muk was also affected by the Flood chasing right behind him. It was clear he had only barely endured it because of Yohan.
“I-I have to run….”
As Yohan mumbled the words Lee Hyun-muk had said, the sky seemed to tear open. Lightning, shaped like distinct branches, struck down above the monster’s head.
KWAGWAGWANG! KWAANG!
With every flash of black light, Lee Hyun-muk’s figure, laughing maniacally, was clearly visible atop the monster’s towering body. It was a form like that of a grim reaper. But….
When the lightning stopped, so did the stalemate. Lee Hyun-muk, in that very position, was caught in the monster’s gaping maw on its side and fell to the ground. The monster’s mouths wailed. Red blood poured down from its upper body, caught in its jaws. KUUUNG! The ground shook as if an earthquake had struck. Dust rose, and Yohan coughed, covering his nose and mouth.
“Kek, cough, cough…. L-Lee Hyun-mook, ss…!”
Only after the dust had half settled could Yohan distinguish his vision. The monster was no longer moving. However, Lee Hyun-muk was wriggling, coughing roughly. Watching this terrifying sight, Yohan trembled and could neither move nor do anything.
He remembered Lee Hyun-muk charging at him as if to devour him. The current Lee Hyun-muk must be even more severely insane. He also recalled Lee Hyun-muk saying he didn’t want to become a more terrible monster. And the words, “I’ll try to get as hurt as possible, so run when I can’t move.”
However, instead of running as he was told, Yohan clutched his aching arm and stumbled towards Lee Hyun-muk. Tears began to fall from his eyes.
“I-I don’t want to be alone.”
He even threw away his backpack, which he cherished so dearly. Without bothering to wipe his incessant tears, he headed towards the horrific scene. Sobbing, Yohan muttered again, and a faint halo of light flickered behind his head, unbeknownst to him.
“You don’t want to be alone either, Lee Hyun-muk-ssi….”
As he had spent time with Lee Hyun-muk, Yohan could clearly see an emotion in his eyes. It was profound loneliness and solitude. Whether he was a Madman or in his right mind, Yohan could always glimpse a desperate longing for people in Lee Hyun-muk’s eyes.