# Chapter 138
“Grrrr… grr.”
When the monster starts looking strange, Taesung doesn’t wait any longer and hurriedly sets it on fire.
But at that moment, its grotesque neck and snout stretch out and try to bite Taesung.
Surprised, Lee Hwan swings his knife with all his might at the snout, and Taesung throws a fireball inside it, only then does the long neck move away.
“Kuheeeeong!”
The monster that jumps out of the fire is now more agile and flexible than before.
From that point on, the battle becomes so precarious and dangerous that not even the next moment’s fate can be predicted.
In the memory, wounds gradually multiply on Lee Hwan and Taesung’s bodies. Lee Hwan saves Taesung, and Taesung saves Lee Hwan. The monster also gradually tires, but they seem to be losing just as much energy.
Moreover, one of them faces increasingly powerful penalties the more he uses his ability. Eventually, at a crucial moment, Lee Hwan slips up on an attack, and Taesung steps in to block it instead, getting impaled by the long front claw.
Kwak!
Whether fortunate or unfortunate, Lee Hwan, not seeing that moment, doesn’t panic and targets the monster’s neck with his knife. He slashes downward, creating a deep laceration.
Sensing danger, the monster backs away and turns around.
The monster limps away bleeding, and Lee Hwan, who had been barely holding on while continuously spitting blood, loses consciousness and collapses.
This is the end of the first battle as Lee Hwan remembers it. Watching the scene unfold before his eyes, Lee Hwan feels his heart sink.
‘…So that’s why he was bleeding so much.’
Back then, he hadn’t known that Taesung’s abdomen had been impaled by such a thick, long claw. When he woke up, his clothes were soaked in blood, but Taesung said he was fine. The bleeding seemed to have already stopped.
‘Even if he’s S-class, he can’t move with an injury like that.’
It’s a wound that would cause immediate unconsciousness from the pain. Taesung himself seems to know this, looking down at his abdomen with a dazed expression.
His hand trembles slightly as he lifts his clothes. He glances briefly at the unconscious Lee Hwan before examining the wound.
His abdomen is so terribly punctured it’s difficult to look at with the naked eye. Blood is pouring out through the wound.
‘…There’s no hope.’
From his long experience, Lee Hwan immediately recognizes his condition. That’s a wound no one could easily survive.
He tries to avert his eyes from the sight he doesn’t want to face, but the hallucination keeps invading his mind. Taesung’s blood-soaked hands seem to choke him.
A painfully clear fact crosses his mind.
He’s going to die. Even with intensive care in a hospital teeming with specialists it would be dangerous, let alone having to continue fighting in these ruins.
‘….’
Moreover, the hallucination keeps showing Taesung and his collapsed self. That means there are still skill stones in the area, and the monster that swallowed them hasn’t gone far and is lurking around.
Lee Hwan feels his breath torn from him just by that fact.
“Haha…”
A bewildered expression he’s never seen before appears on Taesung’s face. As if sensing his own death, all emotions pass across it.
Gulp, he vomits blood. The blood quickly spreads across his pale face. Bright red blood spills onto the ground. Clotted lumps are visible in between.
‘No.’
His organs are damaged. The injury is even worse than expected. Lee Hwan feels as if the world is crumbling.
He wants to rush over and shake him. But Lee Hwan is still trapped in the hallucination. He can’t cry, gasp and shout, or run and embrace the Taesung in his memory.
He can only stare with wide eyes. At himself about to lose him, at Taesung’s face becoming stained with despair as he keeps checking on him.
It’s a more horrific sight than any memory he’s seen through the causal fragments.
Taesung, absurdly, is worried about him even in this state. He’s concerned about who will be left alone when he’s gone. Upon realizing this, Lee Hwan feels as if his insides are being slashed apart.
He remembers Taesung looking down at him with a calm face when he first regained consciousness. In reality, it was all for his sake.
“Kuk, haa… haa…”
The past Taesung, who was despairing, comes to his senses only after seeing the collapsed Lee Hwan. He groans, vomits another basin of blood, and then staggers as he wipes his mouth.
As he rinses the wound with water, red spots are spreading around the punctured wound. As if something had spread out when he was pierced by the monster’s claw.
He pokes the surrounding skin a few times and discovers that the pain has dulled. The wound area seems to be starting to go numb. He also realizes that it’s impossible to stop the bleeding by pushing cloth into it.
Taesung hesitates, takes a deep breath, and creates a small fireball in his hand. Lee Hwan knows all too clearly what he’s about to do.
‘Stop.’
Taesung grits his teeth and brings the fire to the wound. For a moment, Lee Hwan forgets that this is just a memory of the past.
‘Don’t do this. Please.’
His desperate cry doesn’t reach him.
Sizzle- zzzzt-.
With a chilling sound, the skin touched by the heat turns red and shrivels as the bleeding gradually stops.
‘Stop…’
Taesung grits his teeth even harder. The heat seems to reach his internal organs, causing severe pain even in his numbed state.
Before long, he withdraws the flame and collapses from exhaustion. He opens his mouth and spits out a broken molar.
‘….’
There may be no more bleeding for now, but now there’s truly no chance of recovery. Not even a 1% miracle can be hoped for.
Even though his fate is to die without timely treatment, when his end becomes certain, Lee Hwan feels as if he’s losing his mind.
He’s never imagined a world without him. He always thought they would be together. Even returning to the past with the regression skill was because he could go with him.
He had no intention of leaving Taesung in that empty world and going back.
And now, right before his eyes, he’s contemplating death. He seems to sense that the monster will return at any moment.
Left alone in the vast ruins like an endless ocean, in a life where neither can rest comfortably. So he knows that with such a fatal injury, he can no longer survive.
The despair on his face before his final moments changes to deep concern and anxiety the moment he looks at Lee Hwan.
As if he’s extremely worried about the future where Lee Hwan will be left alone.
Even though it shouldn’t be possible, Lee Hwan feels as if he’s crying.
‘Stupid bastard.’
This is not the time to worry about others. He’s dying right now. If Lee Hwan hadn’t been able to regress, would he really have ended like this?
He’s angry. It feels like all of this happened because he wasn’t strong enough. Lee Hwan blames himself and then the situation.
If there had been even one more person to fight with them, Taesung wouldn’t have been injured so severely. Even if injured, he wouldn’t have been just waiting for death.
Once started, his resentment cascades. In the midst of his grief, Lee Hwan suddenly realizes why Jade is the last causal fragment.
‘….’
The world, their causality, was a carriage racing towards a cliff, missing both the golden hour to stop Naru’s experiments and the helpers to save themselves.
The specific points that could be erased and redrawn through regression weren’t just about semi-awakening and experiments.
The scene before his eyes continues to change.
At some point, Taesung searches through his bag and pours all the nearly depleted painkillers into his hand. He swallows them without water and slumps down as his legs give way.
He even injects narcotic drugs he once took from a broken hospital into the wound. After all, there are no side effects for a dead man.
He lies on the ground, making painful breathing sounds until the drug takes effect. His moans are so raw that they make the listener’s heart sink.
Lee Hwan is overwhelmed with ironic emotions as he feels only his presence in the quiet land. He wishes this hallucination would end as soon as possible. But he also wants to know everything that happened to him while he was unconscious.
It’s painful to be unable to close his eyes, but he’s fortunate not to be able to avoid it.
How long did the sound of the wind brushing past last? Taesung slowly gets up. He spits blood once more to the side and kicks dirt over it, rubbing to erase it.
Then he takes out all the traps and mines he’d been carrying and starts limping around. He carefully sets each one up, far away from where they had been staying.
The battle isn’t over yet. If he’s going to die anyway, he’ll burn everything to protect the person he has. As if Taesung’s thoughts are being transmitted, Lee Hwan feels his insides being hollowed out.
The viewpoint keeps alternating between moving away from and coming close to Taesung. The monster is still lurking around the area.
That’s why Taesung can’t sleep or pass out.
After completing his work, Taesung slowly returns to Lee Hwan. He collapses into a sitting position, attaches a medical patch to his torn chest, and wipes Lee Hwan’s blood-covered face with a cloth.
He stares blankly at the face that’s as pale as his own. He gently rubs the side of the closed eyes.
Then he bends down and gently places his lips on Lee Hwan’s.
“…I should have just told you.”
His murmured voice sounds empty.
Taesung’s eyes start to turn red. Tears fall endlessly, wetting the face of the sleeping person. Lee Hwan is surprised again, his vision wavering.
Taesung had never shed tears even once while with Lee Hwan. He had never been deeply disheartened, angry, or sad.
He was always as solid as a rock. As heavy as an anchor. That’s why Lee Hwan could rely on him and be less shaken.
Seeing his silent crying, Lee Hwan feels all the strength draining from his body. After all this, when he woke up, Taesung had acted as if nothing had happened.
He should have distrusted those words and asked if he was okay. He should have pushed away that hand that was blocking him and examined the wound. He should have embraced the crying man and told him that he liked him too.
Belated regrets pile up. Lee Hwan finally can’t endure it anymore and struggles to thrash about. Because he can’t bear to watch anymore. Because he wants to wake up quickly. Because he wants to go back. To his side.
The scene shown by the causal fragment is always mercilessly cruel. Lee Hwan collapses.
As if it had been waiting, his vision flickers again.
