“Something’s there. No — it’s coming this way.”
Hae-il moved in close to Moon Woo-shin and grabbed his wrist, pulling him nearer. Whatever they were about to face, he needed to be able to defend as quickly as possible.
Their arms knocked together, and at the same moment, the identity of what he’d sensed began to come into view.
“…Waves?”
A transparent liquid was surging toward them. Like waves. Wide enough that neither end was visible from left to right, and there was a massive amount of it.
The concrete and steel rebar scattered across the ground weren’t swept away by the transparent waves.
More precisely — the moment the liquid touched them, they melted and disappeared. Without a trace.
It was as if the unidentified waves were devouring everything in existence without discrimination.
What on earth is that.
He was shaken by something he had never seen before, but standing around gaping in a situation this urgent was a luxury he couldn’t afford.
Without realizing it, his grip had tightened — and through his fingertips, pressed against the inside of Moon Woo-shin’s wrist, he could feel a pulse beating clearly.
Feeling that made him unbearably anxious. In the tips of these fingers lay not only his own life, but Moon Woo-shin’s as well.
Hae-il snapped back to focus quickly and assessed his ability first.
He shot the water he had extended out forcefully to try and split the liquid apart — but the volume surging toward them was too great. The gaps he managed to create were quickly filled again with new liquid.
It was possible to keep attacking like this and carve out an escape route, but it was uncertain how long he could sustain it. The guiding consumption was significant, and there was no telling how far the waves stretched.
He concentrated harder and spread out water with a higher density. It took a bit more effort than usual, but he could at least keep the water he created and the incoming liquid from fully mixing.
“Seo Hae-il, this way.”
In the short gap between testing and forming a plan, Moon Woo-shin had apparently finished assessing the situation on his own. He twisted his wrist free from Hae-il’s grip, took his hand properly, and started running.
There was no high enough ground nearby to dodge those waves on foot. And even if there were, the moment the base made contact with the liquid, it would dissolve and collapse — swept away and gone without a trace in an instant.
The place Moon Woo-shin led him to was the complete opposite — the lowest point in the area. A pit roughly the same depth as a person’s height, shaped similarly to the shelter they’d used the night before.
The moment he spotted their destination, Hae-il understood the intention without needing an explanation.
“Stay right beside me.”
He warned urgently and began drawing out water as fast as he could.
At the same time, the two of them leapt down into the sunken space.
Instead of landing on hard ground, a soft barrier of water spread from beneath their feet outward to both sides and then upward, wrapping around their entire bodies.
The roaring sound of the incoming waves grew louder and louder. His heart beat faster in pace with the accelerating sound. Before that liquid got any closer, he had to seal them in perfectly, without even the smallest gap.
Over the spherical barrier enclosing them from all directions, he layered one more coating — then increased the density of the water on top of that to make it thicker. He left a small gap, then wrapped one more layer around. He repeated that process multiple times. Even if the liquid managed to seep slightly into the outermost layer of water, it couldn’t be allowed to reach the two of them directly.
In the span of a few seconds, tightly condensed water stacked in layers around the two of them standing pressed together.
“Can you anchor it to the ground?”
“Yes.”
Moon Woo-shin, who had been watching, said the exact same thing Hae-il had been thinking.
The plan was to hold on and root themselves down as firmly as possible to avoid being swept away.
“It’s almost here.”
The moment Moon Woo-shin looked up and announced it, Hae-il wrapped one final layer of the densest barrier he could manage around the outside. Beneath that, he condensed water into sharp, rigid spikes and drove them down into the ground.
“Done!”
The moment the words left his mouth, the transparent liquid crashed down over the two of them.
The deafening sound of water surging in spread in every direction. For a moment it felt as if the ground beneath them was being pulled away, like they were about to be swept along with the flooding liquid. But they steadied quickly, anchored exactly as intended within the pit.
“Hoo……”
That had been dangerously close.
Only after confirming for herself that the barrier she’d created was holding — that it could withstand the pressure — did Hae-il let out a long, exhausted breath.
Cold sweat trickled down belatedly. Having pushed both his concentration and ability to their absolute maximum in such a short span of time, even a faint headache had set in.
He glanced upward and the view looked like being submerged at the bottom of a transparent sea. Everything that had been scattered around them, however, had melted away in an instant, silently and completely.
With everything else gone, only Seo Hae-il and Moon Woo-shin stood within a pocket of calm.
“The ground itself seems fine though. Maybe it can only dissolve things on top of the ground? Or only things that came from outside the Gate?”
Moon Woo-shin stood beside him, calmly observing and analyzing the outside.
He showed no sign of relief — he was simply composed. Like someone who had never doubted for a moment that Hae-il would hold it together.
It stirred something strange in him. Oddly, it felt like it might be good, and also sort of irritating. Something indeterminate fluttered near his chest. It was an emotion he couldn’t quite define.
Hae-il’s gaze landed on Moon Woo-shin’s eyes as they stared into the distance. His ability shimmered like a reflection in those dark irises that were always so difficult to read. Maybe it was because they looked like rippling waves. They looked exactly like a dark sea.
After gazing quietly for a moment, Hae-il dropped himself down onto the ground carelessly. Only then did Moon Woo-shin’s eyes turn toward him.
“Give me guiding first. I feel like I’m dying.”
He just extended his hand upward from where he sat, and Moon Woo-shin reached down and took it. With his other hand he tapped the water barrier lightly.
“The guiding you got earlier. Did you use all of it making this?”
“Not all of it, but most of it.”
Maybe it was because he’d burned through the roughly stacked layers all at once. He could practically see the bottom. He hadn’t expected the moment when guiding would be truly necessary to come this quickly.
Unlike the immediate effect of direct contact, the guiding didn’t come through right away. All he could feel was the touch of a palm and warmth.
Hae-il gave their clasped hands a small shake, as if urging him on.
A gaze he couldn’t read settled on his face.
“Now what.”
“…….”
Why is he doing that again, he wondered, turning it over in his head — and then it occurred to him. The first time they did guiding after entering this Gate… what had he said again.
“Do I have to say I need it too? I’m only asking for guiding when I actually need it. You just did it earlier without any of that.”
“What?”
“I need guiding. If you don’t do it right now, everything I’ve been holding back might seep in and we could both drop dead on the spot.”
He shook their clasped hands again to press the point, and Moon Woo-shin let out a small laugh.
Witnessing it directly in front of him, Hae-il went completely still.
It was a small laugh, close to a sigh — but it was unmistakably a laugh. Not out of frustration, not out of irritation, not for the sake of social politeness, and not a sneer or a cold smirk — just a laugh.
Had he ever seen Moon Woo-shin genuinely laugh before? Nothing came to mind clearly, but he had the vague feeling that maybe once, a very long time ago, he might have.
An impulse surged up before he could think, and the words came out before his brain could catch up.
“…Why?”
“Why what?”
“Why are you laughing.”
It came out a bit like picking a fight, but he’d genuinely asked out of curiosity. The answer he wanted didn’t come, though.
“I’ll do it. The guiding.”
