* * *
Yohan, fast asleep, stirred at the strange sensation pressing against his cheek—damp, warm, and oddly firm. As he slowly awoke and lifted his eyelids, the first thing he saw was Lee Hyunmook’s handsome face. He was so close that their eyelashes could almost touch. Half-asleep, Yohan mumbled.
“Did you just eat my cheek...?”
“No?”
Hadn’t this happened before? A wave of déjà vu washed over Yohan, and he muttered sluggishly.
“Feels like you did... even my ear’s wet....”
“Yohan, how could I eat something so precious when even wearing it down is a waste.”
Hyunmook whispered softly into Yohan’s ear.
“Uhaahk.”
Hearing such unbearably embarrassing words right upon waking, Yohan could not help but laugh out loud. He then nestled in Hyunmook’s warm embrace happily before squirming up to sit. As he rubbed his eyes, from over his shoulder Yoon Seungryong silently mouthed.
‘Leader, have some conscience.’ Joo Hoyoung made an exaggerated booing sound. But when Hyunmook fixed them with a steady look, both wilted and lowered their eyes. Yohan, oblivious to the silent exchange, stretched long and wide. It was time to walk again.
The four of them grilled and ate lizard and bird meat to the point of being sick of it as they searched the endless sea of reeds for Seo Yakrin. After about a month, Hyunmook declared,
“This won’t do. At this rate it’ll take years.”
“Good thinking. Let’s dump the old man and go back, roast some venison instead.”
Tired of the endless searching, Yoon Seungryong cheered at the suggestion. Yohan too, though he did not say it aloud, silently agreed. The reed sea was truly, horrifically vast and deep. Hyunmook ignored Seungryong’s words and slowly scanned the surroundings.
“I thought he wouldn’t have flown far with his wing injured... but looks like he went farther than I thought. And if we run into Bumram in a lowland like this, it’ll put us at a disadvantage.”
“That’s true.”
Joo Hoyoung, who since the encirclement incident had taken it upon himself to patrol daily in wide circles, nodded in agreement. Lost in thought, Hyunmook pointed up at the enormous bundles of reeds tangled high overhead.
“Let’s try climbing up there and hanging Seungryong.”
Arms folded, Yoon Seungryong nodded vigorously, then belatedly blinked.
“...Huh? What did you just say? Hang me where?!”
Soon after, Hyunmook climbed atop the highest reed bundle, and with Joo Hoyoung’s ice pillar, hung Yoon Seungryong from its peak, fully exposed above the reed sea.
“As much as you hate Yakrin, Yakrin hates you. You’ll make excellent bait.”
“Ah, seriously! Aaaagh!”
Seungryong writhed in disgust, but grumbling and cursing, he still sat slouched on the ice pillar’s summit. As carrion birds and bone birds fluttered around, annoying him, Yohan asked anxiously while watching Seungryong bare his teeth at them.
“Will this really work?”
“Who knows... we just have to hope it does. Flying enemies are a problem for this reason—their range of movement is too wide. Let’s try leaving him there for a week.”
Even Hyunmook’s tone betrayed some reluctance about hanging Seungryong as bait. Burrowing underground like Seungryong or darting swiftly like Joo Hoyoung were both troublesome to deal with—but a flying Seo Yakrin, in the form of a gigantic monstrous bird? That was another matter. Remembering how both of those two had been lured by targets they obsessed over, Yohan asked,
“Does Seo Yakrin not have anything he’s obsessed with?”
“He does. That one.”
Hyunmook pointed a finger at Seungryong. Joo Hoyoung, surprisingly cooperative about hanging his senior as bait, explained.
“Yakrin noona really, really, really hates Seungryong hyung. Ever since coming to the Abyss, she’s had a terrible temper, and even before that she never got along with him. That’s why it turned out like this.”
At those words, Yohan recalled what Hyunmook had once said.
‘Did you... deliberately scatter the team members?’
‘I couldn’t let them devour or kill each other. At some point, even when subdued, they wouldn’t listen anymore. Since they were strong enough not to die easily even when separated... and maybe, one day, if I lost my mind completely, I might do the worst myself.’
All Yohan knew of the Sunrise Team came from news and documentaries. He remembered Seo Yakrin and Yoon Seungryong, who had looked like they got along despite bickering. For their bond to have been broken, not by anything else but by contamination—it pained Yohan deeply.
“They did scream they’d kill each other all the time,” Hyunmook said calmly. Just then, Seungryong, still up on the pillar, roared at the sky.
“Old hag! Get out here! I’ll kill you right now! You’re the reason I have to go through this crap!”
Feeling sorry for Seungryong, who would have to remain up there except at mealtimes, Yohan asked worriedly.
“Will it really be okay for him to stay up there a whole week? Bumram... it’s chasing us, right?”
The three of them always tried to answer in ways that wouldn’t make Yohan worry, but Yohan knew. Not only was Bumram openly pursuing them, but the reason was likely him. As though reading his thoughts, Hyunmook answered,
“Considering how fast a massed Bumram moves and the range Hoyoung can scout, the safest span we can stay put is about a week. Remember in the Japan zone, how it took months to encircle the whole area?”
“Yes, I remember.”
Yohan knew, from Hyunmook’s explanation, that Bumram was not an infinitely appearing phenomenon—it had limits. Still, he could not help but feel anxious.
“So up to a week, it should be fine to stay in one place, probably. Hoyoung will keep scouting every day, too.”
A week... Yohan looked up again at Seungryong. Even with Hoyoung scouting daily, why did he feel so uneasy? He only wished they could reunite safely with Seo Yakrin within that week and leave this dreadful reed sea behind as soon as possible.
* * *
On the fifth day of Seungryong’s posting atop the ice pillar, Hyunmook, listlessly passing time with Yohan at his side, suddenly lifted his head. His gaze gleamed darkly.
“...Get up, Yohan. Yakrin is here.”
At the gentle pat on his back, Yohan, dozing curled up, snapped awake. At last, Hyunmook’s wide, thinly-spread electric field had detected Seo Yakrin. No sooner had he spoken than a vast shadow swept across overhead—it was the wing-shadow of a monstrous bird.
As planned, Yohan immediately leapt down beneath a huge reed bundle. He finally understood why Seungryong had once jumped from a three-story height without hesitation. Even from much higher, the impact was not so bad.
Already below, Hoyoung pulled Yohan into cover between the reeds, hiding him as best as possible from Seo Yakrin’s line of sight. Only Hyunmook and Seungryong, the damage dealers, stood exposed, spears raised, glaring up at the circling giant bird.
Yohan had never seen it directly before, but Hyunmook had once told him he inflicted a serious injury on Yakrin while buried in the black mountain. True to his words, Yakrin’s flight was unsteady, unlikely to last long. One wing was twisted, dark fluids oozing. Soon the enormous bird slowly lowered altitude, and Yohan could finally see it clearly.
It was a huge, black, fearsome bird. Each wingbeat sent gales rolling across the reed sea, stirring waves. Peering up through the storm, Yohan saw its furious face. At the end of a long, sinuous neck, Seo Yakrin’s visage was fixed—unnaturally large for a human, gilded with gloomy gold, twisted like a demon.
Yakrin opened her black lips wide, sucking in wind with a shrieking noise, her torso swelling. Then—
Aaaaaaaaagh! A roar of fury split the air.
Yohan clutched his ears, groaning as {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} stabbing pain shot through his head. Blood streamed down from his ears—the bellow had ruptured his eardrums. Thankfully, the regeneration of a high-grade Awakener healed them quickly. Quick-eyed Hoyoung spotted the blood and cried out.
“Yohan hyung, you’re bleeding!”
“I-I’m fine. It healed quickly. What about you?”
Neither Hyunmook nor Seungryong so much as flinched at the roar that shattered eardrums. No, it seemed they had not taken damage at all. Yohan, accepting that since they were damage dealers it made sense, still wilted when he saw even Hoyoung, the supporter, unharmed. Why was everyone else so tough...?
“I’m fine too!”
As he answered, Hoyoung drew his bow. Shards of ice condensed in his hand, shaping into a particularly long and thick arrow. He set it to the string and pulled back with all his strength. Yet he did not fire, only drew and aimed, waiting with Yohan hidden in the reeds, both locked onto Seo Yakrin.
