# Chapter 24
‘A monster is a monster, but… immortal?’
He thought only the black hand with the ability to instantly kill people belonged to the monster, but now it’s clear that his vitality is also extraordinary. Excessive bleeding, serious organ damage, and even a stabbed heart, yet he’s still alive and well.
Turan drew a spare weapon from his back while observing Levi’s condition. It was a dagger with one side shaped like a saw blade, which he mercilessly stabbed into Levi’s right hand that was touching the ground to support his body.
“Stop it!”
While the actual victim merely flinched his eyes without even a groan, Ion shouted much louder. Ion, who was already in tears, was trying to crawl toward Levi with both hands on the ground. Despite his shattered legs and the wound in his side that must be causing considerable pain, he continued to move forward, only letting out painful moans.
‘Quite attached, aren’t they.’
Turan looked at the two with interest, as if he had already forgotten about the deaths of his subordinates.
A boy with a left hand that saves life, a young man with a black right hand that takes life just by touch.
Turan, a slave trader at heart, was calculating how much more profit he could make if he sold the two of them together as a set.
Turan’s hand moved toward Levi’s left chest. Placing his hand on the blood-soaked area, he could feel a very faint heartbeat.
Feeling that, Turan felt a thrilling sensation.
Not only the ability of his right hand, but if he’s also immortal, this young man’s value skyrockets. From various inhumane experiments that couldn’t be conducted because test subjects would die, to endless cruel torture, all would be possible. People willing to spend enormous sums to buy him would be abundant.
Moreover, he has black hair and black eyes, classified as premium quality among slaves, along with a handsome face, making him useful in various ways.
As Turan was arbitrarily estimating Levi’s price, he tried to grab his hair. Ion, thinking Turan was about to attack Levi again, quickly reached out and grabbed Turan’s pants leg. Even so, it was no different from a powerless child tugging as if throwing a tantrum, so Turan didn’t budge.
“Don’t! Don’t touch him!”
Ion cried out with a tearful face. He shook Turan’s pants leg violently and shook his head.
“I’ll go quietly… sniff, so please stop…”
Turan smirked at how the child finally knew how to throw a tantrum like a child, but then suddenly changed and pressed Ion’s head hard against the ground.
“Ugh!”
“Whether you go quietly or struggling, you’ll be dragged along anyway. So just stay still.”
While Turan’s attention was diverted to Ion, Levi, who had been quietly catching his breath until then, moved. He used his left hand to pull out the dagger that had pinned his black hand, and immediately swung it toward Turan’s face. The sharp dagger sliced through the man’s mask along with his face.
“Ugh—!”
The split mask fell to the ground, and drops of blood splattered on top of it. Turan, with a long cut on the right side of his face, staggered backward, covering his face with one hand.
But true to his combat expertise, he instantly twisted Levi’s left wrist with force, making him drop the dagger. Then he punched Levi’s deeply torn stomach hard.
“Haurgh!”
Levi, who let out a groan from the transmitted pain, collapsed to the side, unable to withstand it. Turan’s eyes were filled with murderous intent as he watched.
“Since you won’t die even if killed, I guess I’ll have to rough you up a bit before dragging you along.”
Turan thought he should first make Levi’s troublesome right hand immobile and correct his behavior. He reached out to destroy Levi’s right shoulder with his distinctive grip strength.
“I told you to stop!”
Ion screamed, picked up the dagger, and stabbed it into Turan’s abdomen. Turan had lost some composure due to the wound on his face and was focusing only on Levi, who had combat ability. Because of this, he couldn’t avoid Ion’s surprise attack in time.
“Urgh! You little brat…!”
Turan violently pushed Ion away and pulled out the dagger embedded in his abdomen, his face greatly distorted. Just as his ominous aura suggested he might behead Ion right away, a black hand suddenly appeared before him.
Red tears dripped through the glowing red markings engraved on the black palm. By the time he realized it was blood flowing from the place pierced by the dagger, Turan’s vision suddenly went dark.
Seeing the black hand touch Turan’s face, Ion’s lips trembled before exhaling a breath of relief. Then, Turan’s large body wobbled and collapsed heavily to the ground.
‘It worked…’
Realizing that Turan, with his peaceful expression and closed eyes, was no longer breathing, Ion’s lips curled up at the thought that it was finally over.
Now I can go back with Levi.
Just that thought was overwhelming enough to forget all the physical pain.
“Levi, now…!”
Ion, turning his head while imagining returning to the tent with Levi, froze in place.
Turan’s dagger was embedded in Levi.
It seemed aimed at his neck, but unfortunately, part of the blade reached the collarbone area.
No way, no way, no way.
Ion looked at Levi with wildly shaking eyes. Levi looked down at the dagger stuck in his collarbone, then slowly pulled it out.
Crack—
A sound that would never be heard when pulling a blade out of a human body was heard.
A chilling sound like grinding a hard glass bead with something sharp.
“Le…vi…”
Ion called Levi with trembling lips. Levi, who had put down the dagger, seemed to be quietly thinking about something with his hand on his collarbone area.
It was anxiety-inducing.
Ion hoped he would say he was fine, that the core was safe.
“Levi, are you… okay?”
The pain from his broken legs and side kept pounding his head and taking away his senses, but Ion had no time to worry about such things. He crawled, putting both hands on the ground and exerting all his strength. The closer he got to Levi, the more of Levi’s hot blood stained Ion.
Levi turned his head and looked at Ion with deep eyes.
“I’m fine.”
That’s a relief.
It’s really a relief.
It’s a relief, but…
“Levi…?”
Why were Levi’s fingertips crumbling away?
Like a doll made of black powder, Levi’s once-white left fingertips, toes, were slowly crumbling away. Black powder, so light it swayed with the faint approaching wind, gradually settled where the blood had been and rolled away. By now, the blood Levi had shed had turned to powder like his hands and feet.
Everything that made up Levi was transforming into black powder. As if that was his original form.
Ion’s blurry eyes, shocked, wouldn’t leave Levi. Levi kept moving his lips toward Ion like that. He seemed to be choosing what words to say.
Soon, Levi calmly spoke up.
“If you go about ten steps behind the tent and dig, you’ll find a small box.”
It was the longest sentence Levi had ever spoken. If it were the usual Ion, he would have been overcome with emotion just for that, but now, it was absolutely unwelcome to him.
“Don’t say it…”
“Among the items inside, there’s a passage permit for the Delos Empire and a small wooden stick with a pattern engraved on it.”
“Stop it…”
“If you show those two things at the checkpoint…”
“I told you to stop!”
Ion screamed loudly. He screamed in anger, uncontrollably dropping tears.
“Don’t tell me such things! I don’t know! I don’t know any of it!”
Ion shook his head and dragged his legs to reach out to Levi. And instead of Levi’s left hand, which had already crumbled up to the elbow, he grabbed the intact black hand.
“If Levi comes with me, sniff, if you come with me, it’s fine… I don’t want to go alone…”
“…”
Looking down at Ion, who was rubbing his tearful face against his black hand, Levi showed a sad expression for the first time.
“You’re crying.”
Levi’s black hand caressed Ion’s cheek. The tears touching his fingertips felt hotter than the blood he had shed.
‘But I don’t know how to cry like you.’
It would be nice if I could cry together.
Because I’m as sad as you are.
Because I don’t want to part.
So I want to cry so badly…
Levi, who was crumbling away, moved his lips with difficulty.
“If I meet you again…”
Would I know how to cry then?
Levi’s monologue remained incomplete as it scattered into the air with black ash powder.
Even the black hand, which had remained until the very end, caressing Ion’s cheek, crumbled into small pieces and fell.
On the black ground, where only his own breathing remained, Ion became alone once again.
“Levi…?”
He called the name softly. The only sound that came back was the small wind drifting through the black thorny trees.
