“…Raon. Kang… Raon.”
Hyukjin’s lips trembled as Raon’s name repeatedly circled inside his mouth. An unmeasurable dungeon with no living creatures remaining. No… there’s the Gem Kitten. But no matter how he looked at it, it didn’t seem like this dungeon’s master.
Emergency rescue request. A dungeon with nothing surviving except the Gem Kitten.
Nox wrapped in black ripples and Raon held in his embrace as if dead.
It wasn’t that he didn’t understand what these things explained. That’s why Hyukjin’s fingertips heading toward Raon kept shrinking back several times.
After an Esper died, what happened to the Guide?
Most Guides who lost their Espers died leading to rampages. Ah! Guides don’t matter, right? At that thought, a sigh of relief began to flow from Hyukjin’s mouth but stopped.
What about when a bond was formed?
His fingertips that were just about to reach Raon hastily shrank back. Soon a scream filled with pain burst from his mouth.
Crack—the sound of his own arm bone breaking was clearly audible to his ears. And Hyukjin, dyed with pain and shock, was looking into dark red eyes. His right hand that had tried to touch Raon was being held by the other person.
Whether the terror like seeing endless darkness was taking away the physical pain, the screams that had been instinctively bursting out continuously swirled inside his body instead of being thrown outside.
Unable to blink or turn his head, Hyukjin was completely devoured by the dark red eyes. Meanwhile, Hyukjin’s breathing gradually began to grow thin.
Kkeuk.
Choking and gasping for breath, his pupils gradually dilating, Hyukjin lost sight of the dark red eyes that had been staring at him and at the same time coughed roughly. Tears and snot flowing without distinction, his lungs that had been unable to accept air for a moment frantically craved fresh air.
Through the continuously flowing tears and blurred vision, Hyukjin’s eyes that had seen Nox, who had been frozen like a statue staring at him like a yaksha, slowly begin to move, rolled back.
“Haa.”
With a long sigh, Jaehwi released what he’d been gripping. With a thud, Hyukjin collapsed to the floor, but Jaehwi’s gaze was directed at the person held powerlessly in his embrace without any color.
Though he knew there wasn’t a big problem with Raon because of the steadily beating heart, the faint breathing sounds, and the warmth he held, Jaehwi’s heart was beating anxiously and rapidly as if about to burst.
Once again he’d lost Raon before his eyes. And the one he’d been holding preciously in his embrace at that…
The moment his embrace became empty in an instant as if he’d been holding an illusion, the energy he’d been suppressing began to rampage. Standing in that spot, Jaehwi didn’t control his energy that was extending out.
The effort to not lose self-control itself was torture. If only he knew where Raon had disappeared to, he’d concentrate on destroying that place. Jaehwi’s sharp gaze that had been following Raon’s energy turned toward inside the dungeon.
And he launched his body just like that. Though he didn’t have flying ability, Jaehwi’s body that had been heading almost like flying toward deep inside the dungeon with several leaps suddenly rolled across the ground.
There was clearly nothing visible, but red blood flowed down along the lips of him who had strongly collided with something and accepted the repulsive force equal to his flying speed. Feeling the familiar fishy smell and taste rising from inside, Jaehwi who raised his body spat out liquid mixed with blood and body fluids.
Though it was one collision, Jaehwi’s skin cracked severely, and a bloody color tinged his eyes.
“So it’s you.”
What was visible to Jaehwi’s gritted eyes was something like a black pillar. Without even time to confirm what had blocked him, electric power gathered on the spear-like sword Jaehwi was holding. With a crackling sound, the sword with countless small sparks flying cut through the air.
With a strong light, a roar rang through the dungeon. With the buzzing aftereffect remaining, Jaehwi didn’t stop going forward.
Something came into his head, but he had no capacity to pay attention to such things. Only when the thing in front disappeared could he find Raon. Finding Raon was the urgent priority. As these minutes and seconds passed like this, Raon’s life might be in danger.
Along with the thought that he might be trapped in an illusion dungeon facing endless death, red energy began to shimmer along Jaehwi’s body. Along with the red energy, he felt the pain of his entire body burning up, but such things didn’t matter.
Jaehwi, who showed no mercy in his hands striking down the transparent membrane blocking the front, stopped his movement for a moment and closed his eyes. Between the low voice buzzing in his head, another voice also mixed in. A child-like voice underlying the low adult voice.
But since neither of them was Raon’s voice, Jaehwi, who had closed his eyes for an instant and was concentrating on the voices, suddenly opened his eyes wide.
—Min Jaehwi. I’ll go out, so you stop. Really stop.
Raon’s voice? He thought he briefly heard Raon’s voice.
Though it seemed urgent, it didn’t seem to be a dangerous situation. Should he say it was faster than usual and somewhat irritable?
Having stopped moving for a moment, Jaehwi who spat the blood filling his mouth onto the ground again extended not the sword he was holding but his hand. His whole body felt as hot as if burning, then blood was dripping along his cracked back of the hand.
“Fuck?”
It’s gone. A curse flowed from his mouth as he realized the barrier-like thing he’d been attacking with all his energy and life on the line until just now had disappeared. The energies that had already escaped his control rampaged on their own and, contrary to his will, flowed rapidly into the space ahead.
Following his own energy, Jaehwi’s eyes as the distance from the black pillar grew closer were now completely tinged red. In the red energy rippling along his body, his form looked blurry, and the electric power generated from the spear he was holding extended in all directions. The dungeon floor Jaehwi walked on turned pitch black.
“Give him back.”
Words were dropped from Jaehwi’s mouth as he realized he’d arrived not at the dungeon’s path but at the last space. His last remaining reason was solely seeking Raon. Because if he destroyed the dungeon like this, he wouldn’t be able to find Raon, Jaehwi was holding on with all his might.
Even if his body couldn’t overcome the energy and burst apart shattered into pieces, Raon’s safety came first.
—I wanted to see you.
“Give him back.”
To the voice full of grating metallic sounds, Jaehwi answered.
—So you’re finally revealing your power.
“Give. Him. Back.”
A hollow laugh flowed from Jaehwi’s mouth as he kept saying the same thing whatever the other said. He hadn’t looked at the other person. The other person was just visible like an afterimage before his eyes. And beyond that, a gigantic black pillar of unmeasurable size was visible.
—He is dead.
Before the other person’s words finished, the red energy that had been wrapping around Jaehwi’s body whirled as if flying high. The electric power that flowed out along the sword was added, and the red and flashing blue soon changed to black and struck the dungeon strongly.
“Kkeuk.”
The energy Jaehwi sent out rang through the entire dungeon, and Jaehwi, whose strength left his legs, had to rely on his sword to avoid collapsing.
Dead. Dead? Hyung? Raon? Kang Raon? My Raon?
That fact floated chaotically in his head ringing alarm bells, and at the same time Jaehwi felt it. His second rampage… The person who would control him had died, and he was going on a rampage. No matter what he did, he was fated to kill Raon and die.
The alarm bells ringing in his head disappeared, and feeling the pain in his body fade, Jaehwi let go of everything. May he never regress again, may he not even reincarnate. About twenty years—long if long, short if short—his own life had been full of pain. He didn’t even have the will to live such a life anymore.
To just vanish like this…
And he hoped Raon would regress. In the distant past when he hadn’t met him. And just as he was hoping he’d enjoy the predetermined peaceful and happy life, his hand moved on its own.
Raon. Who dares call my Raon?
Jaehwi’s eyes, which had been unfocused as if looking at some distant place, captured Hyukjin collapsed on the floor. And his lips curved up crookedly.
The reason the pain had faded was held in his embrace. Was it a dragon that had created the illusion dungeon and summoned him and Raon? Why? For what reason? So this time it even revealed its form before him…
Jaehwi carefully lifted the deeply sleeping Raon and raised himself from his spot. Since he’d killed it before properly talking, there was no way to ask why this had happened. Whether it would regress again or not, such things also couldn’t be known.
Still, what was certain was that he and Raon were alive.
That was enough. Even if such things repeated again, there was nothing he could do.
As he stepped outside the dungeon, Bbobbo was flying while tightly embracing with all four feet an egg full of cracks, matching his pace.
“Dragon?”
“Ppiing.”
Seeing Bbobbo’s golden eyes shine at his question, Jaehwi clicked his tongue softly. Though he’d have to know for certain when it broke out of that egg, somehow he had the conviction that what was inside that white egg would be black.
