FLIA 17

They said regeneration weakens with corruption, but he was still a high-level awakener. He wouldn’t die from just any injury.

Logically, Yohan thought maybe he should run away from the now-mad Lee Hyunmook. But his heart wouldn’t let him.

What moved him wasn’t fear, it was deep sympathy and gratitude toward Lee Hyunmook.

Yohan cried not because he was scared, but because he was overwhelmed by emotion for Lee Hyunmook. That was how he finally reached him.

“Hic… huuh….”

Then he froze. It felt like the blood drained from his body, and sheer terror clamped down on him.

“Guh… guh…”

Up close, Lee Hyunmook’s condition was unspeakably horrific. Blood bubbled up from his open mouth with a sickening gurgle. He had lost nearly half his body but was still alive, turning a blank gaze on Yohan.

Even when he’d been mad, Lee Hyunmook could at least speak strangely. But now there was no trace of reason in his eyes.

“Y-your arm… hic… your arm’s gone….”

Though trembling from fear so intense it felt like he might faint, Yohan scoured the area and brought back the severed arm. But whether it was the severity of the injury or the level of corruption, no sign of regeneration appeared even when he pressed the arm against the wound.

“Why… why isn’t it healing…?”

Maybe Lee Hyunmook’s body, already near its limit from the corruption, had finally broken down completely.

Still crying, Yohan desperately tried to reattach the arm and tend to the torn abdomen. That’s when he froze again.

Other monsters, ones that hadn’t shown themselves while Lee Hyunmook was fighting the massive creature, were now starting to slink into view. Yohan’s hands worked faster.

At this rate, both Lee Hyunmook and he would die.

Shivering, Yohan tried to think of a solution, then his eyes filled with determination. He sprang to his feet and rushed to the backpack he’d discarded earlier. He frantically rummaged through it, pulled out a scalpel, and ran back. He didn’t even think to sterilize the blade.

“Please… please….”

Muttering desperately, Yohan gritted his teeth and raised one arm.

It was the same arm that had been in terrible pain since Lee Hyunmook threw him. He rested the swollen limb on his knee and drove the scalpel down without hesitation. Thwack!

“Guh…”

It didn’t even hurt that much, maybe because the arm was already fractured.

But when he tried to feed the blood to Lee Hyunmook, he noticed Lee Hyunmook’s eyes were fading. He quickly put his hand to the man’s mouth, but the blood only pooled there. He didn’t seem to be swallowing any. Yohan, in his desperation to make him drink, smeared Lee Hyunmook’s lower face with blood.

Despair washed over Yohan.

And then the scent of blood roused the monsters.

“No!”

Screaming, Yohan instinctively threw himself over Lee Hyunmook.

He knew full well that as an ordinary human, he couldn’t protect Lee Hyunmook. That he’d probably just get torn to pieces. But he did it anyway.

Just as the monster in the lead lunged for him, a blinding explosion of light burst out.

From Yohan’s wide-open eyes and mouth, light poured forth.

What had been leaking slowly from his body ever since falling into the abyss now erupted completely.

It was a brilliant, pure white light that didn’t belong in the Abyss.

Yohan instinctively knew something extraordinary had happened to him.

Holding Lee Hyunmook tightly, he poured every ounce of that unfamiliar yet strangely familiar energy outward.

So focused was he that he didn’t even notice Lee Hyunmook’s body beginning to regenerate in his arms… or the red-tinged eyes slowly returning to their original clarity.

At last, the breath that had stopped came back. The severed arm stirred, and gently wrapped around Yohan’s body.

“Yohan.”

“Hic… huuuh…”

“Yohan. It’s okay now.”

The sound of his name finally registered, and Yohan lifted his head.

His vision, soaked in tears, was blurry. He had to blink several times before he could see Lee Hyunmook clearly.

Lee Hyunmook sat up, his face drenched in Yohan’s blood.

Yohan was so overwhelmed with relief that he couldn’t speak, only more tears spilled down his face.

Behind Yohan’s head, a faint halo of light shimmered like a crown.

‘Maybe… I thought I saw sunlight earlier.’

‘Sunlight? But it’s been dark here for two straight days.’

Lee Hyunmook gazed at what might have been the most beautiful sight he’d ever seen.

And he realized why he had mistaken the falling Yohan for sunlight, why Yohan had seemed so different from everyone else in the abyss.

“…The sun I saw, it was you.”

His eyes still carried a faint trace of red, but now they shone with clarity.

For the first time since falling into the abyss, Lee Hyunmook had a pure and lucid mind.

With the halo of light surrounding Yohan’s head, Lee Hyunmook pulled him tightly into his arms as the boy sobbed uncontrollably.

<2>

Swamp

Yohan had never cried like that before in his life.

Never been so horribly terrified, either.

The monsters had been terrifying. The idea of Lee Hyunmook dying, more terrifying still.

“I-I really thought you were d-dying… hic… you weren’t healing, and—”

Even after seeing Lee Hyunmook was fine, Yohan checked over and over again.

His eyes still brimmed with tears, his voice cracked like a frightened goat.

“There, there.”

Lee Hyunmook gently lifted Yohan’s injured arm and slipped off his jacket to inspect it.

Rolling up the sleeve, he saw a badly swollen forearm with deep bruises.

He pressed gently with his fingers, letting out a subtle electric pulse Yohan wouldn’t notice to assess the damage.

“I’m sorry. I think I broke your arm when I threw you earlier.”

“It’s o-okay… you saved me….”

“Yeah. Well, let me be sorry one more time.”

Crunch!

Yohan’s scream came a beat late.

The pain of having the bone set made him bawl all over again.

Lee Hyunmook calmly comforted him and made a splint from branches and bandages he found nearby.

As he dressed Yohan back in the jacket, he explained,

“You haven’t been awakened for long. Your regeneration’s still unstable. If we left it alone, the bone might set crookedly.”

“Hic… a-awakened….”

Though his face was flushed from crying, a faint smile tugged at Yohan’s lips.

Only now did he recall the light, brilliant and radiant, that had burst from him earlier.

He’d always envied his older brother, Yang Yosep, who had awakened.

Even though he’d fallen into the abyss, he was still overjoyed to have awakened.

He looked down at his own hand, unable to hide the thrill bubbling in his chest.

“Ah!”

Yohan gasped.

When he tried to summon the feeling again, a faint shimmer of light surfaced around his hand.

Lee Hyunmook watched silently as the light reflected in Yohan’s always-bright eyes made them sparkle even more. Soaked in tears, those round eyes swelled like galaxies.

“Then I must be a light-attribute damage dealer!”

Ever since he’d emitted that light, the monsters hadn’t attacked again.

Yohan assumed he must be a damage dealer. He must’ve defeated the monsters. But Lee Hyunmook shook his head.

“No.”

Disappointed, Yohan stared at the light hovering over his palm. Looking again, it really didn’t feel like an attack.

Lee Hyunmook’s power had overwhelming force just from its presence, but his own felt soft, gentle.

“…No? I thought I was a damage dealer… then… a support?”

The Bureau classified awakened types with terms like “frontline” and “rear guard,” but people usually used simpler terms:

Damage dealer, tank, healer, support.

There were finer subtypes, but the basic breakdown was: attack, defense, healing, and support.

Lee Hyunmook was, by all accounts, a pure damage dealer, a rare one who controlled lightning without friendly fire. Yohan had wanted to be like him. Or like his brother, Yosep. But apparently not.

Lee Hyunmook also shook his head at “support.” Furrowing his brow in thought, he finally said,

“If I had to classify you… I think you’re a healer.”

“A healer?!”

Healers were those who could enhance an awakener’s regenerative ability.

It did make sense, Lee Hyunmook had recovered completely.

Yohan nodded, but then tilted his head.

“But I beat all the monsters earlier… Healers don’t have offensive powers.”

“You’re right. Healers don’t.”

Lee Hyunmook’s voice was calm and kind.

“But you’re a high-level awakener. And your ability is probably… purification.”

“High-level awakener… and purification? Huh?”

Yohan repeated the words without thinking, then blinked, stunned.

“Me? I’m… a high-level awakener?”

Awakeners were generally classified as high-level, mid-level, and low-level.

These weren’t official government terms, just how awakeners judged one another.

More precisely, they were known as upstream, midstream, and downstream types.

Like water flowing from a source, high-level awakeners appeared first. Then mid-level ones formed around them. Then low-level ones. That was why high-level awakeners numbered only in the double digits worldwide.

And now, Lee Hyunmook was telling Yohan… that he was one of them.