By Zephyria ?. Watching from the Gap
White ash fluttered like snow.
“……”
A stillness as if even the air had stopped. Tangled brown hair flew wildly. The girl in the school uniform, Yoon Ga-eul, looked around. The familiar sight of ruins greeted her.
Ga-eul spread her hands out to check. Both hands were shining with rainbow colors. Ga-eul quickly groped her whole body, her face colored with embarrassment.
“…Crazy, what is this?”
Just a moment ago, she was clearly in class, listening to a lecture. Ga-eul hurriedly looked around. A silent space with no sign of anyone. A place where destruction had come. It was a scene she had seen countless times while traveling through the Fragment of the world.
But it was strange. Until now, Ga-eul had only seen the Fragments when she fell asleep in her room’s bed. Never when she dozed off at school or took a quick nap. But….
‘Why did I come here?’
Side effect of her ability? Or a new ability? Or did her ability control break? Every possibility that came to mind was the worst. Cold sweat broke out. Eventually, Ga-eul slapped her cheeks with both hands. The tingling pain focused her mind.
‘…Let’s calm down. Let’s think.’
Ga-eul took out the necklace she had hidden under her shirt. A white Fragment and a name tag with HYS written on it were attached to the necklace.
Ga-eul gripped the Fragment tightly. Several strands of black light coiled around the white Fragment like snakes. It was a Fragment she had taken from the Invasion Dungeon.
A suddenly reconstructed Invasion Dungeon, a Fragment piece that came from the Golem’s body. It was the first time she had found a Fragment piece in reality, not in a dream. Originally, she would have reported it to Jung-bin immediately upon acquisition, but Jung-bin had been seriously injured while protecting them and lost consciousness…. Ga-eul awkwardly smacked her lips.
‘In the end, I couldn’t bring myself to say anything until now…. I’m really sorry.’
The only difference between before and now was this Fragment. Perhaps the cause of this situation, and the hint to get out of here, lies in the Fragment piece.
‘If I stay here, I don’t know what will happen.’
She was at school. She couldn’t get her friends involved in something strange. Yoon Ga-eul took a deep breath and put strength into the hand holding the Fragment. A pearly, iridescent light enveloped the Fragment. And the next moment.
Wheeeeeek!
Something pure white soared from the floor and wrapped around her whole body.
“Aaaah!”
Ga-eul screamed and took a step back. The white ash, piled high like snow, greedily devoured her footsteps. Something white was tightening around her body. She began to suffocate. Ga-eul squeezed her eyes shut and opened her mouth wide.
“Save…!”
It was then.
Thwack, something cold gripped Ga-eul’s neck. Crap, am I going to die like this? Ga-eul gritted her teeth. But breathing became easier instead. When she opened her blurry eyes, something black, so foreign that it seemed to have been cut out alone from the world of pure white ruins, was standing there.
Ga-eul struggled to roll her eyes. What was gripping her neck was a hand that was eerily black. Not only the hand, but everything from the wrist connected to the hand was black. The white thing that had soared from the floor was faltering as if nothing had happened.
‘It’ said.
—Open your eyes.
“…Ah.”
—Look at me.
“…Eul.”
—Yoon Ga-eul.
“Yoon Ga-eul!!”
Crash! Something shattered loudly. Ga-eul gasped and quickly raised her body. It was inside the familiar classroom. Ga-eul looked around with a blank face. Her friend, Da-yeon, was looking at her with a surprised face.
“What… are you mad?”
“Huh? Uh, what?”
“Are you mad because I shouted in your ear?”
“Sh, shouted?”
“What… you dropped your Suneung Special Lecture book.”
Ah. Ga-eul still picked up the 『Suneung Special Lecture』 that had fallen on the floor with a blank face. Was the sound of breaking the sound of the book and pencil case falling? Da-yeon asked with a worried face.
“You’ve been acting strange lately. Is something wrong?”
“Huh? No…. It’s nothing.”
“Is it something you can’t even tell your friend?”
“No, really, it’s nothing. I’m okay.”
“But why do you keep…. Do you know that your eyes have been a little strange lately?”
Da-yeon mumbled with a frown.
“Sometimes you look at us like you’re seeing a dead person.”
“What are you talking about, that’s….”
Ga-eul, who had slurred her words, looked around.
There was no one in the classroom except the two of them. She shifted her gaze and looked at the clock. It was already 10 minutes past lunchtime. Usually, she would have sprinted to the cafeteria like a wildebeest as soon as the bell rang!
Ga-eul asked, tidying up her fallen hair.
“Why are you here? Aren’t you eating lunch?”
Sigh, Da-yeon sighed and rested her chin crookedly.
“How can I go anywhere when you’re not waking up like someone on drugs? Anyway, the lunch menu wasn’t that good today. The teachers are cracking down on deliveries these days…. Min-ji and Su-yeong went to the school store and will be back soon.”
“Why just the two of them?”
“They lost rock-paper-scissors.”
At the same time, the front door of the classroom burst open. Two female students with their arms full of drinks and bread grumbled and staggered in.
“I guess everyone thinks the same thing. There are so many people at the school store, crazy.”
“The pizza bread was already gone.”
Da-yeon exclaimed.
“Are you guys Hunters? So fast.”
“Yeah~ I’m going to take the Hunter exam and join the Wave Guild.”
“I’m going to HB Guild. Oh, Yoon Ga-eul woke up?”
“Are you okay? You were sleeping like you were dead. It’s a good thing it’s homeroom.”
Min-ji, who had examined Ga-eul’s face, held out a bag of bread. It was a hamburger bun that Ga-eul often ate. White steam rose from the small tear in the bag. Ga-eul raised the corners of her mouth and accepted the bread. It was warm.
Actually, she didn’t even know if she was smiling properly. She could only assume that she was smiling properly since there was no big change in her friends’ expressions. She tried to move her stiff mouth.
“Thank you.”
“Aish, say thank you with more heart.”
“Leave her alone, she’s sick.”
“Shouldn’t you go to the infirmary?”
“What’s the next class?”
“I don’t know.”
“What do you know?”
The friendly chatter of her friends, the laughter and soft breeze seeping in through the slightly open window. Ga-eul let out a silent sigh of relief. And she tore open the warm bag of bread a little.
It was then.
“…But Ga-eul.”
“Huh?”
Ga-eul raised her head. Su-yeong was looking at her with a strange face.
“What’s that on your arm inside your sleeve?”
“Huh?”
“No, there’s some kind of strange mark….”
“……”
Ga-eul hurriedly rolled up the sleeves of her school uniform shirt.
A red mark from being tied to something remained.
Thump.
‘Ah.’
Cold sweat flowed.
‘No way.’
The familiar scenery in front of her was gradually distorting. The classroom and her friends’ faces turned green, orange, blue, red, yellow, and white. Her friends’ faces split into many. Two, four, eight, sixteen….
Thud, the bread in her hand fell weakly.
A friend with 108 heads tilted her head. 256 mouths asked.
“……?”
“…….”
The countless overlapping voices did not convey proper meaning and became a buzzing noise. Cold sweat streamed down, and she felt nauseous. Her chest felt stuffy. Ga-eul covered her mouth.
‘I’m going to throw up….’
Creak, the hand that had been holding the desk warped the edge of the desk. The 『Suneung Special Lecture』 and pencil case that she had barely picked up spilled out.
Ga-eul staggered weakly and got up from her seat. Countless broken pieces of mirrors distorted and reflected each other’s appearances. Her friends were split so much that she couldn’t recognize them as friends.
A noise that sounded like a scream rang in her ears. Everything in her field of vision shone brilliantly like a kaleidoscope. The surroundings spun around.
Ga-eul covered her ears. She seemed to have screamed, Aaaah.
The next memory was….
“It’s not there.”
Thud, a hand wearing a white glove placed a small magnifying glass on the tray. The boy holding the tray scurried away. The owner of the hand, Nam Woo-jin, crossed his arms and hummed. Jung-bin, who was standing behind him, asked carefully.
“What do you mean it’s not there? Do you mean she’s unconscious?”
Inside Nam Woo-jin’s laboratory in the Seowon Guild, Yoon Ga-eul was lying still on the operating table. The girl in the school uniform was unconscious despite having no external injuries. On both arms, with the sleeves neatly rolled up, there were clear marks as if she had been tied to something.
Her chest rose and fell slightly. Her necklace was slightly revealed. The Fragment hanging from the necklace was plain white. Nam Woo-jin, who had been silent for a while, suddenly asked.
“What did she look like when you first found her? Anything strange about her lately?”
Jung-bin sighed and took out a notebook from his suit jacket pocket and read out what he had written.
“I received a call from the homeroom teacher and arrived at the school, and she was already lying in the infirmary. I heard from Yoon Ga-eul’s friends that she had been sleeping like she was dead all day, and then she woke up at lunchtime, suddenly screamed, and then collapsed. Recently….”
“……”
“Well, she’s been a bit strange. She was sometimes surprised when she saw her friends. To borrow her friend’s expression….”
Jung-bin’s expression darkened.
“Like she suddenly saw a dead person….”
Nam Woo-jin, who had been intently examining Ga-eul’s pale face, asked again.
“When this friend originally saw the Fragment, was she always… unconscious like this?”
“No. I’ve watched her before, and she looked like she was sleeping soundly.”
“Then it’s almost certain….”
Nam Woo-jin turned his body away. His white gown fluttered. He dragged his Crox straight to the corner of the lab. Jung-bin, who was following him with his eyes, asked.
“Could she have been attacked mentally?”
“No. It’s completely different.”
Nam Woo-jin, who had spoken sharply, whipped away the white cloth covering something. The object that was revealed was similar to a globe. However, instead of a globe with a world map drawn on it, there was a mass of light that shone faintly like mother-of-pearl.
Nam Woo-jin reached out to the mass. His eyes, burned pure white, shone brilliantly.
“I know it well, since I ended up like this from observing the gaps in the world.”
“……”
“Her Soul was dragged to another world. I don’t know what the reason is, but….”
Jung-bin opened his mouth slightly.
“In that case….”
“Well, Yoon Ga-eul has been saying that she keeps seeing Fragments of the Destroyed world….”
Nam Woo-jin, who was looking into the mass of light, muttered in a chilling voice.
“She must have been dragged to ‘that’ Destroyed world.”