Kim Seonghwan was not a cultist from the start.
When the Great Collapse occurred—as in other regions—Sokcho suffered a terrible disaster.
‘Crisis soon becomes opportunity.’
Kim Seonghwan was one of those who realized that the disaster, poverty, chaos, and horrific anarchy brought by the Great Collapse were in fact a chance to make a killing.
‘We’re a little cooler and wiser than the rest.’
Under that slogan they formed the [Sokcho Reconstruction Revival Association].
A club closer to a social circle for the rich, that gathering was transformed one day—by a certain voice that rose from beneath Ulsanbawi—into [The Old Voice], a cult praising blasphemous mysticism.
Even though Kim Seonghwan sensed that this change carried lethal danger, he chose neither escape nor apostasy.
‘Why would I? This madness gives me more power and pleasure!’
After all, the surreal power and cosmic marvels granted him greater wealth and authority.
‘Yes, whatever hardship comes, I can turn it into opportunity!’
Without even realizing that his mind was being stained by abnormal madness and surreal terror, he was intoxicated by the pleasure and power provided by the [Great Source] sleeping below that Seoraksan.
But madness is diluted by a greater madness.
Grrrrrrrrrk!!
That horrific stone coffer racing at incredible speed like a living beast (and at this point, even he knows the coffer’s name is Doldol).
“Ihihihik—”
That ominous laughter spilling from Kim Sinhwa’s mouth.
“Uaaaargh!”
Kim Seonghwan’s scream, echoing as he smashes into a grotesque stone wall.
---
Just an hour ago, sensing ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) that the descent of the [Great Source] was near, he had poured out bizarre rapture and blasphemous incantations, displaying that cultist’s madness.
But what he is pouring out now are pleas to be released and tears.
“Uaaaaaaaagh! Please stop!”
A deep, dark maze.
A ceiling at a dizzying height.
Structures that look as if whole gray megaliths were carved into shape.
Geometric figures embossed on every wall.
A mysterious underground architecture sunk in grim darkness.
Under Seoraksan—
and under that immense Ulsanbawi—there was such a place......
The very ruin where a flesh-piece of the Abyssal Being, the [Great Source], lies sleeping—the ruin [The Old Voice] so desperately sought.
‘But—was it like this? Was it like this?’
Had the circumstances been calmer, perhaps he might have felt the awe and emotion befitting his identity as a cultist.
But right now, dragged by Kim Sinhwa, he is inside that ruin......
Kwagwagwagwak!
“Uaaaaaagh! Let me go! Let me go! Please let me go!”
......flying at high speed.
Hovering helplessly in midair and being carried along after Kim Sinhwa.
Not even in a proper posture.
“Uaaaaaagh! You fiend! At least change this posture a little!”
Floating behind Kim Sinhwa, tilted about forty-five degrees to the left.
Instead of the awe a cultist ought to feel, he feels only animal terror—and crude sensory overload.
No—he’s on the verge of snapping!
Religion isn’t the issue right now!
“Spare me! Please stop! Stop running!”
He kept screaming, pleading, twisting his body, but the one gripping his body and lifeline—Kim Sinhwa—ignored him and......
“Kim Sinhwa, where are we going now?” “Kim Sinhwa, is this even the right way?” “Kim Sinhwa, you do remember correctly, right?” “Kim Sinhwa, stop! Let’s just run away already!” “That cultist’s been mouthing off—are you going to leave him?” “Oh, is that the problem right now?” “Where is this?” “There’s that down below, right? Can you handle it?” “You do have a plan, right?” “Hey, keep your posture straight, you’ll fall!”
He kept talking to himself.
It sounded like many people, but all those cries came from one person—from Kim Sinhwa’s mouth.
Riding atop Doldol as it dashed through the maze at incredible speed, Kim Sinhwa kept talking to himself—“The ruin under Nakhwaam is probably like this too.”—waving his hand unsteadily, bobbing his head precariously, shuddering as if dancing.
“I told you, I have a plan!”
Kim Sinhwa’s shout.
“Does that plan actually work?” “We’ve already wasted an hour just in this maze!” “What’s happening now?”
“I think he’s completely wrong! This guy’s delusional! It’s all delusion!”
“Shut up, I called Lee Haseo and checked!”
“That crazy woman didn’t check anything!” “All you confirmed is that your mind is getting crazier!” “Let’s just go back to Heo Sanghyun and have a meal......”
“Oh, you jerks......!”
Now he’s started fighting himself.
‘Ah, it’s over,’ thought Kim Seonghwan.
In this astonishing, wondrous ruin—without even seeing the moment of the coming descent—he would die, captured by this madman.
He was about to close his eyes as if giving up on everything—when a distant screech split the air.
“Hey, something’s out there! Kim Sinhwa! Kim Sinhwa!”
“Yeah, I see it too! It’s coming again! Red!”
Shouting that, Kim Sinhwa moved his left hand in a complex pattern—and Kim Seonghwan was flung hard to the left in accordance with that gesture.
“Uaaaaaagh!”
His scream.
“Kkiiiiiik!”
The cry of a bizarre creature with four wings.
Kwarurururuk— kwaaaah—
Whatever art that owl-like bird performed, a massive surge of waves swept through the interior of the ruin.
“Achilles!”
[skreee—]
And at Kim Sinhwa’s feet, a heap of junk shaped into......
A dog?
Every time that thing—beast or robot, who knows—made a repulsive motion, dozens of fireballs launched with a wryaaaaaaa!!! roar.
Kwagwagwang!
“Wow, I somehow job-changed into a beast master.”
A stray mutter from Kim Sinhwa that meant nothing to him.
“Kkirrrrk—”
“Kieeeeeeek!”
Monsters pressing in from all sides.
White skin—rough fur—sharp claws—humanoid in a degenerate, decayed way—an appearance that suggests its own lore and history—but Kim Sinhwa had no interest in their lore, and Kim Seonghwan had no room to grasp the horrific implications of their forms.
“Clear out of that spot—all of you!”
“Over there?” “Good grief, how far down are we going?”
“Yeah, over there! Let’s go, animal friends!”
“Kiiiiii!”
[krrrriiiiik—]
Grrrrrrrrrk—
With cocksure bravado he picked up even more speed.
“Doldol! If the floor opens up, jump right in!”
Whirrrrrrrrr—
Mana-stone bombs flew to match his gestures.
Kwooooooom!
A massive bloom of fire and explosion.
Rrrrrrrrrrumble—
Another hole ripped in the floor.
A bottomless, ominous—mind-numbingly deep pit where the floor can’t be seen.
“Good! Doldol, jump!”
Another plunge.
“Uaaaaaagh!”
You’d think he’d be used to it by now, but his scream continued.
Falling—
It kept going like that.
Kim Sinhwa would move through the complex maze, then suddenly smash a wall or floor and dive through.
“If we take the regular route, we won’t make it in time!”
There were no markings, no map.
And yet he moved like someone who had the weak points of this complex maze perfectly memorized.
‘He really does know something, right?’
The word [delusion], which had popped out of his mouth now and then, bothered Kim Seonghwan immensely.
And one more thing bothered him......
Rrrrrrrrrrumble—
A vibration that seemed to shake the entire ruin.
Not even when Kim Sinhwa broke walls or floors had the tremor been this strong.
And along with that tremor came......
“Tekeli-li!”
A shoggoth’s cry.
“Hey, is that shoggoth following us?”
“Yes.”
He asked and answered himself.
“What on earth are you doing!”
A howl from Kim Seonghwan.
As if remembering something, Kim Sinhwa briefly turned—his face in that dreadful four-eyed mask—and pointed somewhere.
“We’re here. See that dead end?”
“A dead— it’s a dead end! And that tremor! Even I can tell now! A descendant of the [Great Source] is coming!”
“Hm? You said he was your friend, didn’t you?”
“Ugh—”
A descendant of the [Great Source].
In other words, by now even he knows that a shoggoth attacks friend and foe alike.
Just an hour ago he’d thought dying that way wouldn’t be such a bad death, but after being flung around by this mind-shattering charge, he could, somehow, make a slightly more ‘rational’ judgment.
“......”
With four eyes blazing bright yellow, Kim Sinhwa studied his face.
Then, in a voice too low for him to hear, he muttered to himself.
“Hey, this guy’s madness looks like it’s easing a bit?”
“This is according to plan too.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. I told you, I have a plan. And to reach the last floor, I need this guy. Okay, bust that too!”
With that, he swept his hand to trigger an explosion.
Kwooooom!
“One more smash on the floor there!”
Kwooooom!
“Then hook left!”
“Kieeeeeek!”
“Yeah, mop-up! Red!”
Kwarururururuk—
“We’re here!”
“Here?”
“Yeah. Here. Ah, this is rough. How much time left? Thirty minutes? Damn it, can we make it in thirty?”
Kim Sinhwa now went beyond talking to himself—he seemed to be reading something invisible to Kim Seonghwan’s eyes.
“Insane...... Right, this bastard...... is completely out of his mind.”
“Hahaha— Mr. Cultist, when you see what he’s about to do, you’ll realize it’s beyond that.”
Kim Sinhwa chimed in to his mutter.
“Sigh. I might look a little strange, but it’s not like that, so don’t worry.”
Then he stretched out his hand and pointed to the ceiling.
“Th—that is......”
A shaft opens straight up toward the sky.
How far down had they come?
He glanced upward along that vertical shaft, but he couldn’t see a ceiling.
Whirrrrr—
At the base of that vertical shaft, he began piling an enormous number of mana-stone bombs.
“Weight is what matters. Weight. This section is much harder than the other walls.”
Kurrrrrrrrumble—
Another tremor rolled through.
No—this one felt different from the earlier tremors.
Kwarurururuk— kururururuk—
“Uaaaah—!?”
How had he predicted that? From the vertical shaft, a massive shoggoth—was pouring down!
“Tekeli-li!”
“Right! Now!”
Kwoooooooooom—
A shock that flipped sky and earth, a horrific vibration. A shoggoth cascading down. An explosion timed to precision. A flash so bright his vision went pitch-black.
As his mind reeled, Kim Seonghwan lost consciousness. Hoping all of this was part of a dreadful nightmare—and that, when he opened his eyes, a happy daily life as a cultist would be waiting......
---
“Sir, sir! Hey, Mr. Kim Seonghwan!”
He hadn’t even been out long, but Kim Sinhwa roughly wielded telekinesis and shook him awake.
“Wh—what? What is it?”
“It’s your turn now. You see that?”
He sees it.
A grotesque corridor formed of huge statues.
Megaliths in surreal shapes. An exotic style that doesn’t suit the underground of Korean soil—no, the dissonance isn’t on the level of a nation.
They are grotesque statues that fit no culture ever crafted by humanity through long history.
And between those statues, seals laid out in ritual patterns.
“That is......”
He felt his heart race.
Dragged around by that madman—by Kim Sinhwa—he had briefly forgotten, and only now did his cultist nature awaken late.
“All right, that door. You can open it, right? With the secret rite passed down by the cult.”
“Yes, yes...... I can open it. And I’ve longed to open it......”
He briefly regained his senses, but the madness that rushed back—badly disturbed his judgment and attention.
So he failed to realize that the [door] had already been opened once, and he approached the [door] between the statues.
“Go on, then. Sir. Fulfill your aspiration and your supplication. Open this door and show me what lies beyond it.”
“Yes—The Old Voice came from beyond this door. I can feel His pulse.”
A wicked mana flared from his body.
He had faltered for a moment, but a cultist nonetheless. He began to chant the incantation taught by [The Old Voice].
