# Chapter 163
Bang!
Startled by the harsh sound, the nightmare elephant looked in this direction, but discovered the bizarre phenomenon of the bead moving on its own and fled in surprise. The Dabalsin, realizing its bead had been stolen, stretched its legs while undulating the walls. Tentacles with thick suction cups rushed toward the bead.
‘Aack!’
Jaekyung, who involuntarily screamed at the rapidly approaching attack, hurriedly went down the stairs. Splashing footsteps echoed against the walls. The thick octopus legs fiercely pursued the thief who had revealed himself due to broken concentration.
While running desperately, Jaekyung continuously hit the bead against the railing, but it wouldn’t break easily. Why won’t it break? As Jaekyung irritably hit the railing, it felt different from before—softer. The Dabalsin was dissolving the spatial construction to protect its bead.
To make matters worse, he could feel his outer clothing, which had absorbed water to its limit, getting increasingly soaked. There wasn’t much time to deliberate. Jaekyung gritted his teeth and ran back into the corridor. Splash! With the final step, black liquid sprayed in all directions.
He’d managed to escape from the black river, giving him a moment’s respite, but the situation was far from over.
The Dabalsin, having detected Jaekyung’s position, gradually tightened the corridor. Writhing octopus legs popped out from the walls. What should I do? Jaekyung took hesitant steps backward while biting his lip. Everything here could become soft according to the Dabalsin’s will. To break this, something hard was needed, but how exactly…
‘…’
Jaekyung looked down at the bead.
Or more precisely, he looked at his own hand holding the bead.
Very close by was an organic entity that wasn’t under the Dabalsin’s control and was probably quite hard.
“You don’t mean… no, right?”
Iyeon, who had been quietly listening to the story, cut in with astonishment. Surely Jaekyung wouldn’t be so reckless… But Jaekyung dejectedly hung his head. Looking closely, there was a bump-like thing on his forehead.
“…I thought it was the only way at the time.”
Either way, if he delayed even a little, he was destined to be caught by the Dabalsin and crushed. Jaekyung closed his eyes tightly and smashed the bead against his own head.
Thwack! It sounded like a watermelon breaking.
The Dabalsin seemed surprised by the sudden self-harm show, as its movements abruptly stopped. Jaekyung, barely enduring the ringing pain in his skull, examined the bead.
Naturally, it hadn’t even dented. If a human skull were harder than a variant’s, superhumans wouldn’t have been necessary when the Red Void appeared. Jaekyung grimaced while firmly gripping the unblemished bead. It’s not working. A sense of powerlessness, stronger than the headache pounding through his brain, washed over him like a tsunami.
A long shadow fell over Jaekyung. It was a movement to snatch the bead before the intruder could attempt another outlandish act. As the darkness approached, Jaekyung backed toward the window and bumped into something. W-what? Jaekyung looked down with a startled face.
It was the nightmare elephant. It had apparently run to the end of the corridor after fleeing earlier. The black smoke that usually emanated from its four legs was subdued, perhaps dampened from being in water. Jaekyung instinctively checked this first and let out a short sigh of relief.
The nightmare elephant was slinking away, trying to distance itself from Jaekyung despite having nowhere left to flee. Watching this, a peculiar light entered Jaekyung’s eyes.
A very solid creature not under the Dabalsin’s control.
It didn’t take long to decide. Jaekyung struck the nightmare elephant’s head with the bead using all his strength.
Keeee!
The nightmare elephant let out a skin-crawling sound and retreated a step. Jaekyung applied force to his hand again. Whack! There was a small cracking sound from the bead, which made a much stronger impact than before.
‘It worked!’
Jaekyung involuntarily cheered as the nightmare elephant writhed in pain from the blow to its head. The nightmare elephant shook its body while making a screeching sound.
The bead of an advanced variant is its energy source. Having been directly hit with it and even exposed to the energy leaking from the cracked bead, there was no way the intermediate variant nightmare elephant could remain unharmed. The nightmare elephant’s body slowly crumbled. Its wet feet, round body, and long trunk.
Soon the small variant disappeared without a trace.
Simultaneously, the octopus legs approaching Jaekyung hesitated and then writhed. The Dabalsin’s power was gradually weakening.
But it wasn’t weak enough to be unable to kill a single person.
The legs, which had paused momentarily, flew at Jaekyung with murderous intent toward the one who had destroyed its bead. Though the attack was clearly visible to Jaekyung, he had no means to defend against it. Is this how I die? Jaekyung closed his eyes tightly and turned his head. It’s okay. Since the bead is broken, at least…
But he felt nothing. By now, the octopus legs should have pierced him, struck him, or squeezed and crumpled him, but it was as if time had stopped. W-what’s happening? Jaekyung cautiously opened his eyes that he had tightly shut.
A large back stood in front of him.
‘Even a worm will turn.’
Behind it, he could see sharp black spikes that had skewered the octopus legs and pinned them to the wall. Sano, who had expanded the space with a wide metal plate as if separating the undulating walls and floor, turned his head to look at Jaekyung after his brief soliloquy. Jaekyung flinched at the cold eyes and clutched the bead tightly. The intense gaze soon returned to the Dabalsin.
The variant that had lost its bead seemed to instinctively sense that it could never match the being before it. The walls and floor that had been constantly moving suddenly became calm. It was almost as if it were lying flat in surrender.
‘Where’s Jung Iyeon?’
‘…Ah! T-that. Through that door…’
Jaekyung pointed at the black door. Sano slowly turned his head to look at the wide-open door. Seeing him approach without hesitation, Jaekyung hastily added an explanation.
‘Don’t go in there. The Dabalsin and nightmare elephant combined, so probably a hallucinatory state…’
‘And Jung Iyeon stupidly went in there, you mean.’
‘…No, Iyeon-ssi didn’t know that far…’
While Jaekyung was fumblingly defending him, Sano stretched out his hand. The sight of thin metal covering from his long fingers to his thick forearm was so surreal that Jaekyung unconsciously stopped talking and watched.
Soon, thin wires shot out from Sano’s shoulders and arms. The ropes, the same color as the metal-covered skin, instantly extended into multiple strands and disappeared beyond the door. Sano took half a step closer and inserted his arm into the door. His hand, which had been lightly stirring, soon grabbed something.
And a light body was pulled out of the darkness.
“To think that Jaekyung-ssi not only broke the Dabalsin’s bead but even killed the nightmare elephant. I see Jaekyung-ssi values his own life too.”
Iyeon muttered vacantly. Even as he said it, he thought it must have been quite a waste. Both the Dabalsin and nightmare elephant were rare, and they had even combined. Even to Iyeon, who was an outsider, this wasn’t a common situation.
“This guy knew he was going to die.”
But instead of Jaekyung’s expected grumbling, what came back was an unexpected voice. Sano, who had spoken matter-of-factly, glanced at Jaekyung.
When Sano had been able to enter the Dabalsin’s space, he had clearly seen Jaekyung’s appearance. There was no trace of resentment or regret on Jaekyung’s face.
What resided on his face, with cold sweat streaming down, was a hint of relief.
“When you break the bead, the variant weakens.”
When the drugged Dabalsin weakened, the spatial dominance that was confining Iyeon would also weaken. Jaekyung probably thought that would be enough.
“When the hallucination weakens, you would break through not long after, and then you would live.”
Iyeon’s eyes widened. Sano was now saying that Jaekyung had attacked the variant solely to save Iyeon.
“Why…”
Jaekyung-ssi likes variants… The foolish question flowed out vacantly. At those words, Jaekyung scrunched up his face.
“I, I just said I might be curious.”
“What?”
“I was just curious, that’s all.”
Honestly, even Jaekyung himself didn’t know why he had acted so desperately. Jaekyung still liked variants and didn’t care what happened to humans. If he had come with someone else, or if he had just come alone, he might have simply stayed put. For Jaekyung, that would have been the higher survival probability. If he had needlessly provoked the Dabalsin and ended up in battle, Jaekyung’s chances of winning would have approached 0%.
Nevertheless, he couldn’t bring himself to abandon Iyeon who had disappeared into the hallucination.
