# Chapter 123
“That can’t happen, absolutely not, I won’t let it be that way.”
Geonwoo spoke as if making a vow, then turned his gaze from the door to look at the inner wall of the cave. Countless patterns were intertwined everywhere, and they became more intense as one got closer to the door where the S-class monster was sleeping.
Geonwoo looked at this and approached the door. Standing where the patterns were most dizzily intertwined, he raised his arm and grabbed his opposite arm. Without hesitation, he used his ability.
Then, drip, drip, drip. Red blood flowed down his arm and poured onto the pattern.
Before the S-class monster, the master of the Gate, could recognize Jaehee as a sacrifice, Geonwoo let his blood flow so that the pattern would absorb more blood from someone else and target himself instead of Jaehee. So that it would recognize him as the sacrifice.
The area with the pattern became thoroughly soaked with Geonwoo’s blood.
***
Outside the Gate at the Center, everyone was frantic. Preparations were in full swing to enter the Gate at any moment.
“Center Director! The readings coming from the Gate are becoming more and more consistent!”
At the administrator’s words, everyone checked the readings flowing from the Gate. The readings that had been rising rapidly were gradually becoming consistent. This meant that the formation of the Gate was being completed, and that the boss monster, the master of this place, was awakening.
If that was the case, as the Gate’s formation was nearing completion, the closed Gate door would open again. Though those already inside couldn’t come out until the Gate was cleared, new entry would be possible.
“Gather all ability users immediately…!”
Just as the Center Director was about to speak to the people, the door of the control room opened urgently, and a man entered. His face was deathly pale.
“Dr. Yoon?”
The Center Director spoke in surprise at the man who had entered. He seemed to have woken up not too long ago, as he opened his mouth while looking at the Center Director with difficulty, supported by healing Espers.
“Center Director, I have… something urgent to tell you.”
In Dr. Yoon’s hand was a small piece of paper. The gaze of the ability user assisting the Center Director naturally lingered there. There was no choice but to do so. The energy of Choi Geonwoo, the S-class Esper whose whereabouts were currently unknown, was faintly imprinted on that paper.
“Before entering the Gate, there’s something you need to know. And something we need to do.”
Dr. Yoon handed the Center Director the memo that Choi Geonwoo had left him. It contained detailed information about Yoo Jiwoon’s brainwashing ability and evidence to support it, as well as information about the ability users who would enter the Gate.
“Investigate this.”
The Center Director ordered.
The verification process didn’t take long. Everyone looked surprised, as if they found it hard to believe. Among them, the Center Director spoke firmly.
“Gather all Espers and follow Esper Choi Geonwoo’s instructions.”
The Center Director prepared the Espers who would enter the Gate exactly as Choi Geonwoo had instructed.
***
“Esper Kang Dohyun. Slowly, adjust it so that Lee Jaehee doesn’t die.”
Jiwoon cruelly ordered Dohyun.
Since Jaehee couldn’t die before the S-class monster awakened, Jiwoon directed Dohyun to make Jaehee bleed little by little, so that he wouldn’t be in danger from excessive bleeding.
While leisurely appreciating this, something strange happened. It was an unexpected situation.
The pattern, which had been slowly changing color with Jaehee’s blood dripping, suddenly began to change rapidly from black to red.
The more blood absorbed, the faster the rate of change, and the color of the pattern subtly varied depending on the subject, but the current change and reaction were not happening because of Jaehee. Anyone could tell that the sacrifice had changed from Lee Jaehee to someone else.
Surprised, Jiwoon’s pupils enlarged as he stared at the pattern. The same was true for Jaehee.
Jaehee and Jiwoon’s gazes urgently turned toward the door. They had an intuition that Choi Geonwoo outside the door had done something.
It was then that the tightly closed massive door opened. The door began to open smoothly, as if accepting the one who would become the sacrifice.
Creeeeak—!
Along with the sound of the door dragging on the ground, an enormous wavelength instantly surrounded the area. By the time they perceived it, Choi Geonwoo had already approached in front of Jiwoon and beside Jaehee.
“Kang…!”
Jiwoon didn’t even have time to finish saying Dohyun’s name. Geonwoo immediately used his ability, perhaps intending to separate them from Jaehee. Although it was an attack made while suppressing his power as much as possible to avoid hurting Jaehee who was nearby, even that was threatening to Jiwoon, who was a Guide.
Jiwoon’s body flew straight to the wall from the wind Geonwoo had created. Just before his body could crash into the wall, Dohyun used his telekinesis to catch Jiwoon so he wouldn’t get hurt.
But as much as the gap in their ranks, it wasn’t easy to block the attack Choi Geonwoo had unleashed. By now, Dohyun too had been pushed back quite far from Jaehee’s side by the wind Geonwoo had created.
Dohyun quickly approached and stood in front of Jiwoon. He stood as if protecting Jiwoon, the owner of the Guiding energy invading his body, and looked at Geonwoo. Geonwoo confirmed that Dohyun’s eyes were unfocused and hardened his expression.
Hiding from Jiwoon and Dohyun’s line of sight, Geonwoo concealed Jaehee behind him.
“Geon… woo.”
At the sound calling him, Geonwoo turned around to look at Jaehee. Jaehee’s condition wasn’t good. He was bleeding as if injured, and couldn’t move properly as if he had taken some drug. Geonwoo urgently supported Jaehee. Beneath Jaehee were the blood he had shed and the pattern that had tried to respond to it little by little.
In that moment, Geonwoo’s fingertips trembled as he took out a potion. If he had been a little later, the sleeping S-class monster might have recognized Jaehee instead of himself as the sacrifice. Thinking that, he couldn’t suppress the emotions rising within him.
Geonwoo clenched his trembling hand and raised his gaze to look at Jiwoon. That gaze was incredibly cold. According to hyung, Yoo Jiwoon would have memories of the previous cycle. It meant he had staged this event despite knowing what would happen to Jaehee.
Geonwoo’s eyes hardened firmly, and uncontrollable anger filled his pupils. He couldn’t leave alone the one who had tried to make Jaehee a sacrifice for the S-class monster.
“You, this wound…!”
But Geonwoo wasn’t the only one feeling such emotions. Jaehee raised his gaze to see Geonwoo who had appeared to save him. Then he noticed a large wound slashed across one of Geonwoo’s arms.
It wasn’t a trace of being attacked by a monster. It was a self-inflicted wound. He had done it so that Jaehee wouldn’t be harmed, so that he wouldn’t become the S-class monster’s target. Knowing that Geonwoo had done this to save him, Jaehee’s eyes painfully contorted. He couldn’t take his eyes off the wound Geonwoo had suffered in his place.
But Jaehee gritted his teeth, trying to regain his senses, and called Geonwoo. There was something he absolutely had to say. Jaehee began to speak in a very small voice, almost like a whisper, so that only Geonwoo could hear.
“I think I’ve found a way to change fate.”
At those words, Geonwoo’s pupils enlarged.
“You found a way? Hyung, that’s…!”
But Geonwoo couldn’t continue his words. At that moment, a small sound was heard, tuk, tuduk, and the ground began to vibrate slightly. A chilly coldness settled within the Gate, and a strong pressure that compressed the entire body, which hadn’t been felt until now, engulfed everyone. It was because the S-class monster that had been sleeping was beginning to wake up, and its wavelength suddenly surged strongly.
“…!”
Even Jiwoon, who had been just watching the situation from behind Dohyun without daring to step forward due to Geonwoo’s arrival, detected this change.
In that moment, everyone’s gazes converged on one place. They stared at where the giant stone statue was. And they quickly noticed the change in the statue. The position of the statue’s fingertips had changed very subtly, and the moment they perceived this, the statue’s hand flew toward Geonwoo at an uncontrollable speed, as if to grab him.
KWANG—!
Geonwoo, protecting Jaehee, grabbed the statue’s hand that was lunging at him and barely managed to stop it. Then the eyes of the statue, which had shown no change, suddenly altered. Like something alive, the pupils moved here and there, then stopped precisely where Geonwoo was. As if confirming the one who had shed blood on the pattern, the one who had become a sacrifice to awaken it, the one who would give it a new body, a terribly intense gaze, persistent to the point of obsession, was directed only at Geonwoo.
