# Chapter 122
“Argh!”
Dohyun raised his nails and scraped the floor. He could feel the poison gradually leaving his body. In a situation where his body was increasingly not listening to him, Yoo Jiwoon approached Dohyun and placed a hand on his shoulder.
“Let’s end this now, Esper Kang Dohyun.”
As Jiwoon said this, he simultaneously injected guiding energy directly into his body through the touching skin. Due to the forcefully surging strong guiding energy, Dohyun collapsed to the floor with severe convulsions, and the focus in his eyes gradually blurred.
“…hyun!”
Jaehee’s voice also lingered in Dohyun’s ears before dispersing. Soon the convulsions subsided, and the trembling of his pupils also stopped.
That’s when it happened.
BOOM!
Along with a deafening explosion that seemed to tear the eardrums, a fierce wave strong enough to make the body tingle began to envelop the surroundings. At the familiar energy engulfing the area, Jaehee and Jiwoon’s gazes turned to one place.
“…!”
Where their eyes landed was a massive door situated at the furthest end. The door, protected by dozens of barriers, shook violently.
“…No way!”
Jiwoon’s brow instantly contorted. This was the room of the boss monster located in the deepest part of the gate. That door, protected by dozens of barriers, wouldn’t budge with the power of an ordinary Esper.
Yet the door was shaking greatly. And the familiar wave was definitely Choi Geonwoo’s.
“So Choi Geonwoo has arrived.”
Jiwoon’s gaze shifted. With coldly settled eyes, Jiwoon glared at Dohyun. In the current situation, the only one who could lead Geonwoo here was Kang Dohyun.
Jiwoon turned his head again, this time looking toward the rock where he had been sitting just moments ago. Under the rock, there was still a broken glass vial with reddish liquid soaked all around. Jiwoon’s gaze fell on it.
“So you broke down because of that poison and even brought Choi Geonwoo here.”
Jiwoon muttered self-mockingly, then lifted his sharp gaze to look at the massive door.
“Are you trying to interfere again?”
Jiwoon twisted the corner of his mouth diagonally as if displeased.
“Esper Kang Dohyun.”
A cold voice descended as if permeated with chill. With a crooked expression unlike before, Jiwoon looked at Dohyun and ordered.
“Take Lee Jaehee over there.”
Jiwoon said, pointing to a specific place. There was a gigantic statue that appeared to be tens of meters tall. Though it had a human form, it was distorted here and there, presenting a terrible appearance.
“…!”
At Jiwoon’s words, Jaehee also lifted his gaze to look at the statue. Soon, Jaehee’s pupils shook severely. Just as Yoo Jiwoon knew what that statue was, Jaehee, who remembered previous cycles, also knew what it was.
‘…An S-class monster that hasn’t awakened yet and is still asleep.’
And a being waiting for a sacrifice to awaken it, waiting to fuse with that sacrifice.
Jaehee recalled the previous cycle. The S-class monster absorbed the blood of living beings through numerous patterns lying within the gate, and it fused with the body of the one whose blood it absorbed the most, taking over that person’s body. As if looking for someone to replace its old and broken current body, trying to switch to a new one.
Jaehee’s eyes hardened as the terrible memory of that time came to mind.
On the other hand, Jiwoon was relaxed. Carefully appreciating Jaehee’s trembling pupils, he spoke in a light tone.
“I was going to use Kang Dohyun to kill you, but I’ve changed my mind.”
Jiwoon looked at the statue and displayed a pretty smile. It was a chilling smile that made goosebumps rise all over one’s body.
“I’ll use you as a sacrifice to awaken the S-class monster.”
Jaehee reacted strongly to those words.
“You’re going to awaken the S-class monster?”
That would put everyone here in danger. Jiwoon, reading Jaehee’s thoughts, said mockingly.
“What can I do? To deal with Choi Geonwoo, I need at least an S-class monster.”
Jiwoon pointed his index finger at Kang Dohyun.
“Because Kang Dohyun alone can’t stop Choi Geonwoo. And it was just a matter of time anyway. I was planning to kill you and then kill Choi Geonwoo too.”
“…What?”
Jaehee couldn’t believe his ears. He couldn’t understand what he had just heard.
“You’re going to… kill Geonwoo?”
Jiwoon showed an expression as if it were obvious.
“If you die, Choi Geonwoo won’t leave me alone, so I can’t just leave Choi Geonwoo alone, can I?”
After saying that, Jiwoon immediately gestured to Kang Dohyun.
“Sprinkle Lee Jaehee’s blood there.”
Jiwoon said, pointing to a geometric pattern on the ground in front of the statue. At those words, Dohyun took out a jackknife from his chest.
“Ugh, Do, hyun!”
At that moment, the sharp blade cut across Jaehee’s arm, and drop by drop, blood flowed onto the floor. Then the brilliantly intertwined pattern, as if alive, sucked in the blood.
***
“Hyung! Jaehee hyung!”
Geonwoo was out of his mind. His eyes, full of anxiety and impatience, were busy examining the interior of the cave.
Geonwoo had immediately followed into the gate after seeing the traces left by Kang Dohyun. But the inside of the S-class gate was divided into numerous branches, reminiscent of a massive labyrinth. It was difficult to find those who had entered first by their energy, as the waves from monsters inside the gate flowed out to the extent that other people’s waves couldn’t be detected. The only thing he could rely on was the faint remaining pheromones of Jaehee.
Geonwoo quickly moved, following those pheromones. In every place he passed, countless geometric patterns were densely drawn inside the cave. Knowing what those were because he remembered before the regression, Geonwoo did his best to hurriedly find Jaehee.
“This place…!”
The place he arrived at the end of the faintly remaining pheromones was familiar to Geonwoo. It was the room of the boss monster, the owner of this gate that he had encountered in a previous cycle, and the place where he had chosen death to protect Jaehee.
Geonwoo approached the door. But the boss monster’s room, which had already welcomed an intruder, had its door firmly closed, as if it would no longer allow any intruders until the S-class monster awakened. No matter how much he pushed, the door wouldn’t budge.
Geonwoo urgently looked around. His eyes caught the numerous patterns on the inner walls of the cave. Geonwoo touched the patterns, trying to calm his ragged breathing due to worry about Jaehee.
‘It’s okay, the patterns… show no changes.’
The patterns were exactly as Geonwoo had seen them when he entered the gate.
But he couldn’t be at ease. Geonwoo was only anxious because he didn’t know what was happening inside this room and couldn’t be sure if Jaehee was in there.
So Geonwoo wanted to go inside right away. To do that, he needed to open this door.
Looking at the door blocking his path, Geonwoo stepped back a little. He concentrated his ability in both hands. Then, a small wind began to blow in the otherwise calm space, which instantly grew enormous. Power condensed at an increasingly rapid pace, as if to devour the door that seemed tens of meters tall.
BOOM!
That power exploded all at once. The towering door, so high its end couldn’t be seen, shook violently.
But that was it. The door with barriers didn’t open easily.
“…!”
That’s when it happened. The color of the patterns densely drawn on the inner walls of the cave began to change gradually.
“The color? Don’t tell me…!”
At that moment, memories from the previous cycle unfolded like a panorama. What had happened as the color of the patterns changed, and that for these patterns to respond, the blood of the one to be sacrificed was needed!
No!
“Hyung! Hyung! Answer if you can hear me!”
Geonwoo desperately called for Jaehee, pounding on the door as if to break it. But there was no reply. Geonwoo’s face turned pale.
Currently, there were only four people in the gate: Jaehee, Kang Dohyun, Yoo Jiwoon, and Geonwoo himself. In this situation where Yoo Jiwoon was targeting Jaehee, whose physical condition wasn’t good, the fact that these patterns, which only respond to the blood of living beings, showed changes meant nothing less than that a problem had arisen for Jaehee.
There was something else that frightened Geonwoo even more.
‘I can’t… regress anymore. This is… the last time…’
Worry for Jaehee and the fear that he wouldn’t be able to reverse anything if he lost Jaehee this time overwhelmed Geonwoo. Geonwoo’s fingertips trembled violently, without him even realizing it.
