By Zephyria 
“Uh, yeah! Let’s go, let’s go!”
Yoon Seung-ryong deliberately patted Joo Ho-young’s back forcefully and shouted. Since Yohan, who was much younger, was so brave, Joo Ho-young also squeezed his eyes shut and tried hard to shake off the pathological anxiety brought on by Negative Reinforcement. As he tried to walk briskly, Yoon Seung-ryong paused.
“Wait, there’s no old man here, so let’s take this instead.”
As he said that, he rummaged through his pocket and with a grunt pulled out… surprisingly, a motorcycle. It was such an unexpected item that Yohan and Joo Ho-young momentarily forgot the gravity of their situation. Yohan stammered, asking,
“A, a motorcycle… how did it come out from there?”
“This much is a piece of cake. I thought I might need a ride someday, so I kept it, and here I am using it.”
He then pulled out another one. Joo Ho-young slowly approached, stroked its sleek body, and looked dazed. Watching him quickly get on and start the engine, Yohan thought, With Ho-young Hyung’s speed, don’t we even need a motorcycle…? But Joo Ho-young’s eyes sparkled so much that Yohan couldn’t voice the thought.
Having neither a license nor any experience riding a motorcycle, Yohan rode with Yoon Seung-ryong. Soon, with a loud engine roar, the motorcycle sped off. It was a bit slower than Seo Yakrin, but comparable in speed. Yohan’s only job was to move his spear left and right, directing the way. To encourage the two, Yohan shouted,
“I think we’re really close!”
Perhaps because he was a part of Lee Hyun-muk, Yohan could feel a strange resonance from the Eternal Stone as he got closer to him. It almost felt like syllables of a word.
‘Still, this place is inside Hyung-mook Hyung, so does getting closer to him even mean anything?’
As he thought this, Yohan soon changed his mind.
‘What if it doesn’t mean anything? It’s the only thing I can do right now.’
Besides, such thoughts were a luxury now. Another hardship had appeared. The firm, flat ground gradually began to recede, and the motorcycle’s speed noticeably decreased. It worsened until it was practically a mud pit. Nevertheless, they kept driving, ignoring it, and eventually, the motorcycle broke down.
“Ah, damn it! This is problematic!”
Even as he exclaimed, Yoon Seung-ryong abandoned the motorcycle without any hesitation. Immediately, as if it had been waiting, the mud began to bubble, and something rose from within. None of the three were surprised. Some will of Lee Hyun-mook was clearly blocking their advance. It was quite a stubborn resistance.
Bubbling, bubbling. Gurgling….
Like something boiling over, a human shape rose up. Just like the giant heart and the horned monster, this too was bound to regenerate, so the three tried their best to ignore it and run. But eventually, their feet were caught. Yoon Seung-ryong’s abilities were useless here, so Joo Ho-young stepped in.
Crackle! In an instant, the dark red mud field froze over. The ground became solid, making it much easier to run, but that was short-lived.
Mud humans began to rise from the thinly frozen ground and approach. Their movements were slow, but their numbers were too great to ignore. Unable to defend or fly, the three swung their weapons and defeated the monsters. But as expected, they rose again from the ground. The more they defeated, the more they appeared, and more and more….
“Wait, are these… hands?”
Yohan, who had sent the head of one monster flying with his spear, was horrified. At first, five monsters rose, but now it looked like the tips of fingers. They hastily retreated.
Gurgle…! With large bubbles, the tips of both hands rose and pushed, causing the mud to flow sideways like waves. Then, a giant head slowly emerged from between them. Joo Ho-young looked once at the slowly rising head, then at Yohan, his eyes resolute.
“Yohan-ah, come here.”
As he approached, Joo Ho-young’s buff was applied. Yohan knew what this meant, and looked at him with trembling eyes. Joo Ho-young patted Yohan’s shoulder and said. The head had now risen past its eyes and was reaching its nose.
“I think I have to stay here too.”
“Hyung….”
“If this thing fully emerges, then it will be truly hopeless. You said we’re almost there, right? So hurry and go.”
Joo Ho-young pushed Yohan’s back and leaped onto the giant head. As soon as he placed his pale white hand in the center, white frost appeared on the giant’s crown. Then, silently, it began to freeze from the head down.
The slowly rising head stopped. An untimely winter descended all around. Yohan glanced back at Joo Ho-young once, then kicked off the frozen, hardened ground with Yoon Seung-ryong and ran. His bitten lip tore, and he felt the pain.
As they disappeared completely into the darkness, Joo Ho-young, whom Yohan looked back at, was surrounded by dozens of frozen mud humans. They were faint, like mannequins, or perhaps figures. Yoon Seung-ryong, now completely out of breath, muttered,
“This doesn’t feel good. You’ve been dropping them one by one since earlier. Creating situations where they have no choice but to stay behind, targeting one by one….”
Yohan agreed with his words. But even knowing the method, they had no means to counter it. It was an opponent so hopeless that he felt it would be better to face hundreds of Abyss monsters.
After that, the two ran without a word. Fortunately, perhaps because Joo Ho-young had frozen the source of the mud, the ground no longer softened. Even as a High-level Awakener, his breath grew ragged and his mouth felt dry, when he saw something in the darkness. It was the entrance to a cave. Yoon Seung-ryong screamed.
“Ah… no, right? Yohan-ah… please tell me it’s not.”
Yohan wanted to say it wasn’t. But the Eternal Stone hanging from his spear clearly pointed to the cave. As they passed the cave, the resonance weakened, and as they approached the cave, the resonance grew stronger. Yoon Seung-ryong clutched his head, but there was no other way. The longer they delayed, the less they knew what would happen, so he quickly made a decision.
“Screw it! The Team Leader wouldn’t hurt you, would he? Let’s go!”
“Yes, let’s go!”
Trying to hide his fear, Yohan entered the cave entrance. The entrance, narrow enough for the two to barely fit, gradually widened as they walked. Yohan looked at Yoon Seung-ryong and could see he was extremely tense. The anxiety rose to his throat, and Yohan finally blurted out,
“Seung-ryong Hyung. Can I, really… persuade Hyung-mook Hyung?”
Yoon Seung-ryong turned to look at Yohan. Surprisingly, he was smiling.
“Yohan-ah, do you know the difference between us and you?”
Not hot, but due to extreme tension, Yohan wiped the sweat from his forehead and hesitantly replied,
“…That I’m a Purifier?”
“That you’re the only one who saved the Team Leader.”
Yohan faltered at the unexpected answer. Yoon Seung-ryong looked down at the smooth floor, which reflected light from the lantern he held.
“Even before falling into the Abyss, and even after, the Team Leader saved us countless times, but none of us could save the Team Leader. But you did.”
Yohan listened silently to the honest feelings of someone who always acted cheerfully. Yoon Seung-ryong’s gaze, wandering on the floor, felt heavy.
“Isn’t our Team Leader a truly pitiful person? To be so broken trying to save team members who are useless, who hate and fear him, every time. So… if something happens to me, run away no matter what. And meet the Team Leader. We can’t, but you can.”
Saying that, Yoon Seung-ryong offered the lantern he was holding. As Yohan took the lantern, Yoon Seung-ryong raised his spear and plunged it into the floor. Instantly, the cave rippled. It was as if it were alive…!
“Run!”
Yoon Seung-ryong shouted as he slashed the floor with his spear. Yohan ran without looking back. With every stride, the lantern swayed, scattering light chaotically in all directions. Silent screams echoed from all around. Even after injecting paralyzing poison into the wound he had torn, the cave convulsed violently. The widened cave began to shrink again.
“Damn it, really! Team Leader, you’re too much! You’re doing this?!”
Yoon Seung-ryong cursed as he screamed. Trusting Yohan, the Purifier, he released copious amounts of poison all around. All sorts of potent toxins filled the surroundings. Paralytic poison, neurotoxin, sleep-inducing poison…. The movement of the giant creature seemed to slow slightly, then the surroundings began to contract sharply. It was when Yohan was running with all his might.
“…Go, Yohan-ah!”
With a force that shoved his back hard, he narrowly managed to escape outside. The force of the shove was so strong that he fell to the ground and got up groaning. Even in that moment, he desperately held onto his spear and lantern. Yohan looked back fearfully. The rear was abruptly cut off, as if the cave had never been there.
“Seung-ryong Hyung…?”
He called out in a trembling voice, but there was no answer. The expected had happened. He was truly alone. His breath hitched in his throat, and his head spun. Yohan crawled a little on the ground before staggering to his feet. He immediately started running.
“Huk, heuk….”
He had been left alone. Lee Chan-ha, Seo Yakrin, Joo Ho-young, and Yoon Seung-ryong. Losing the people he relied on one by one was terrifying and dreadful. His body and mind felt numb, as if paralyzed. Yohan deliberately tried not to awaken his senses or emotions. If he had the energy to cry, he wanted to save it. He just ran, keeping his mind as blank as possible, following the path of darkness stretching straight ahead.