The early part of the flight was very comfortable and smooth. At least, for the first two or three hours.
Seo Yakrin, whose contamination level had risen from prolonged use of his ability, briefly landed on the wasteland they were crossing. She clenched her fists tightly, as if to suppress her anger and irritation. After several deep breaths, there came the sound of bones and flesh twisting and cracking, and a massive pair of wings burst forth. It was like releasing something that had been forcibly restrained, springing out like a coiled spring.
Shaking her head, Seo Yakrin suddenly pecked at Yoon Seungryong’s head for no reason. As Yoon Seungryong let out a shriek, she gave a single roar and lowered her body. It was a sign to climb on.
“What a fucking temper....”
Grinding his teeth, Yoon Seungryong leapt onto Seo Yakrin’s back. Yohan, full of guilt, carefully climbed onto her body as well. Finally, the moment Lee Hyunmook mounted, Seo Yakrin impatiently took off into the sky. Yohan screamed.
“Aaagh!”
The altitude shot up instantly, only to plummet again. With each beat of her wings came a feeling like his organs were being ripped out, while the scenery around them blurred past in dizzying shifts. The wind was so fierce it was almost impossible to keep his eyes open. As Yohan fumbled around in panic, he clung ever flatter against her body until he finally found his lover. Pulling him close with a laugh, Lee Hyunmook held him tight in his arms. Only then did Yohan feel like he could breathe again.
The flight might have been harsh and violent, but at least Seo Yakrin still had enough sanity left to know the direction they needed to go. The problem, however, was that she wasn’t the only flying creature in the Abyss.
Smaller bone-bird creatures of the Reed Sea scattered and fled, overwhelmed by her presence, never daring to attack. But the larger ones, flying in flocks, hovered nearby, testing them as they trailed behind. Annoyed, Seo Yakrin kept turning her head from side to side.
Strange monster birds with unusually long tail feathers cried out with harsh, grating screeches. The moment they drew close, snapping their beaks dangerously, Lee Hyunmook’s lightning flared in a blinding flash. Several of the creatures, scorched by electricity, tumbled from the sky in smoke. Immediately, the others swooped down to tear apart their fallen kin. Watching the grotesque scene of cannibalism made Yohan grimace with nausea.
As time went on, even the occasional ambushes and the rough turbulence that had seemed impossible to get used to at first, eventually became familiar. Yohan even began nodding off, dozing lightly while occasionally purifying Seo Yakrin to keep her from losing herself entirely. After days of near-constant dives, climbs, and attacks, there was no choice but to adapt.
After nearly a week of flying, landing for rest whenever possible, they finally reached the ruined city zone.
* * *
“Wait, I... I think I’m gonna be sick....”
They said that after spending too long on a boat, you get land-sickness once you step back on solid ground. Joo Hoyoung was exactly like that. Used to the constant sensation of running at high speeds, he now groaned as he alone was tormented by motion sickness.
“Yakrin noona, thank you. Thanks to you, we got here really early.”
Collapsed beside him, Seo Yakrin groaned as well, receiving Yohan’s careful purification. From the sound of it, her shoulder muscles had seized up painfully.
“Never... doing this again....”
“Me neither....”
Laying the two of them down gently, Yohan looked around. They had landed on the rooftop of a tall building. But this was not part of the ruined city they had expected. They had rushed as quickly as possible, but by the time they arrived, a new zone had already appeared. This was one of the buildings in the newly manifested Korean city zone.
Beyond the rooftop railing stretched a dark, unlit cityscape. Already evacuated during the rupture stage, it was eerily desolate. Yohan scanned carefully, wondering if there might still be mercenaries caught up while exploring the rupture.
“What are you looking for, Yohan?”
“Just... checking if there are any people.”
Because he had met Lee Hyunmook here, he thought perhaps there could be others as well. But Lee Chanha shook his head.
“There’s a reason almost no humans survive in the Abyss. Any being with intelligence above a certain level simply can’t last here. Within a few days, they’re either devoured by monsters, or, if they somehow survive, they take their own lives.... If it weren’t for our team leader, we would have too....”
Trailing off, Lee Chanha gave a faint smile. Thinking about it, Yohan himself was an unusual case. He had been lucky, and thanks to his Awakening ability he had avoided contamination and survived. Otherwise, he would have been eaten long before ever meeting Lee Hyunmook.
Once Seo Yakrin recovered her strength, they descended the building. Seeing the Korean signs filled them with relief. Many buildings were still intact, and they settled in one of them to wait. But unlike Joo Hoyoung had once speculated, the city zone did not get ejected from the Abyss again.
Yoon Seungryong quickly gave up and went off to look for farmland. Joo Hoyoung wasn’t deeply disappointed either, which meant he had never truly expected it in the first place. Only Yohan stayed disheartened, his mood sinking. Seeing the Korean city made him want to go home even more.
“Yohan.”
Lee Hyunmook approached, while Yoon Seungryong called out to him as Yohan sipped on a drink Yoon had scrounged up somewhere. Just having Hyunmook beside him filled Yohan with gratitude, and he leaned into him quietly. Staring up at the dark, blood-red sky of the Abyss, he muttered,
“Is there really no way to get out of here?”
“There must be. We just haven’t found it yet.”
The man who had never once abandoned any goal since falling into this place wrapped his arms around Yohan as he spoke. With a sigh, Yohan looked past the city skyline, to the black mountaintops where Eternal Stones gleamed bright white like perpetual snow.
He thought of their first settlement in the Japanese zone destroyed by Bumram. They had put in effort and grown attached to it, only for it to be wiped away in a single horrifying disaster. This time, after striking such a heavy blow to the Abyss’s core, Bumram likely wouldn’t come for a while. Even if it did, it might not be such a severe threat.
But eventually, they would have to leave again, abandoning yet another place they had struggled to settle into. Waiting for the new zones to fall from Earth, settling and fleeing, over and over.... Just imagining it made him sigh. Was there really no way out? Or was it, as Hyunmook said, simply that they hadn’t found it yet? Yohan recalled Joo Hoyoung’s hypothesis once more.
‘If the Abyss is a disguise, and Bumram is like powerful gastric acid... then when it overfeeds, it spits things back out before swallowing again.... If that’s true, then....’
He reviewed his ability once more. Purification. He could cleanse and remove contamination. He had even nullified digestive fluids. That would prevent the Abyss from digesting its prey, cutting off its nourishment. Purification disrupted the Abyss’s digestion itself.... And now, after suffering such a heavy blow, the Abyss was weakened....
A sudden thought struck him. He remembered the city zones they had passed before. Old, decayed, filthy, crawling with monsters. But this Korean zone had only been swallowed less than a month ago.
It was practically a whole, undigested mass....
“We have to purify it.”
The words slipped out of Yohan’s mouth. Speaking them aloud only made his conviction firmer. He leapt to his feet, turning toward his steadfast lover, his eyes shining brilliantly. He shouted,
“Lee Hyunmook! I think... I think I’ve found a way to get out of here!”
* * *
Yohan hurriedly gathered everyone together. Having been idly passing time in the relative comfort of the new city zone, they quickly assembled, watching his face, flushed red with excitement.
“Listen, I’ve been thinking. The Abyss doesn’t just swallow random places on Earth, right? First, rupture phenomena happen, and the contamination spreads enough before the Abyss manifests ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) there.”
“Yeah... that sounds about right.”
Yoon Seungryong furrowed his brow, recalling something from long ago, and nodded. A crack in the air would suddenly open, contamination would skyrocket around it for months or years, and then one day, a bizarre black hole-like maw would appear and devour everything in the area. That was how the Abyss emerged.
“The Abyss can only consume contaminated land. So, what Joo Hoyoung saw back then — wasn’t it that the Abyss swallowed areas that weren’t contaminated enough and then spat them back out? If that’s the case, then if we purify this entire city... by the same principle, maybe we’ll be expelled out of the Abyss!”
As the words tumbled out in a rush, silence fell over the group. Just as Yohan began to shrink back, wondering if he’d said something stupid, Seo Yakrin blinked and muttered blankly,
“Huh. ...Could that be it?”
Then she, too, suddenly stood up, excitement lighting her face. Yohan’s theory sounded strangely plausible. Even Joo Hoyoung’s pale, sickly face flushed with rare heat.
“That makes sense! We never had a purification ability user before... no one’s ever tried this! It might actually work!”
But Lee Chanha, frowning deeply, slowly shook his head.
“It sounds like a possible theory. But Yohan... do you really think you can purify an entire city?”
“I... I’m not sure.”
Yohan answered hesitantly. His spherical purification field was powerful, yes, but remembering the scale he had managed over the Reed Sea or atop the Black Mountain, it didn’t seem like it could cover an entire city. But... as if sensing his thoughts, Lee Hyunmook asked,
“Yohan. After that recent collapse, your power grew dramatically, didn’t it?”
“Yes! That’s right! And I’ve completely recovered now!”
Yohan practically bounced on his feet. Each time he pushed himself to the edge, wringing out every drop of strength, his ability had grown. And after nearly bleeding himself dry at the Abyss’s core, this time his growth had been even greater.
“Then let’s try it first, within reason. Don’t overdo it. And... we’ll need to keep in mind how the Abyss might react.”
At those words, Yohan froze. He remembered the way monsters had swarmed like rabid dogs when they tried to destroy the core. The others had said it was unprecedented for the Abyss to swallow a new zone so soon. If it had forced itself out of desperation for nourishment, there was no way it would quietly allow them to make it spit it back out.
