FLIA 116

It was small and black like a black pearl. But it neither shone nor gleamed, instead it looked like a hole. Or like something horrifying was swirling inside. It also looked like a bead filled with filthy water of the Flood.

The rat, startled, fled. The will of the thing that had crawled out from the Abyss shrank back, rolling along the ground as if it were crawling. Its movement was like a revolting bug curled up.

By chance, there was a group of mercenaries nearby. They had entered to raid the rift. The eerie thing, which had been rolling around erratically like a tumbleweed in the wind, slowly stopped.

“Soon, a lot of purifiers will show up, right?”

“I’m jealous. People will throw money at them even if they just sit still.”

“I never thought a new type of awakener would appear all of a sudden. But it’s a good thing. It means less worry about corruption.”

Awakeners gathered near a shabby building to rest were chatting together. Among them, one mid-level awakener suddenly looked around as if he had sensed something. He looked toward where the black mass had been, then tilted his head.

“What’s wrong?”

“No, I just got a bad feeling. I guess it was nothing.”

“Shit. We came here to make money, but this place really sucks. I’m going to go insane.”

“You’re not corrupted already, are you?”

One of them joked and spat with a laugh. Hidden under the shade, the black thing gauged them. Two strong, four weak. It abandoned the strong ones and instead targeted the weak. After a while, a low-level awakener feeling the need, stepped away.

He had already finished one patrol earlier, so he let his guard down as he pulled down his pants. While he relieved himself, the black thing crawled onto his shoes. Then it slowly climbed over his pants, his shirt, then onto his shoulders. One end grew sharp like a stretched rubber band, then with a snap burrowed into his ear canal.

“Huh?”

By the time the mercenary reacted as he pulled up his pants, it was far too late. His eyes, which had been blankly staring into the air, now rolled in different directions. Murky black spit bubbled from his mouth. Crack, his arms and legs twisted at strange angles. His knees bent backwards with unnatural flexibility, then barely snapped back into place.

The thing that had taken root in the human body recalled the ability that had been most effective so far. From what it had devoured, one of the especially delicious things had been the power of hallucination. It judged that it would be useful here as well. Then it returned to the camp.

“Why’d you take so long? Are you constipated?”

The mercenary’s body had already warped and twisted beyond anything human, and the mutation was still in progress, yet his comrades noticed nothing strange. To their eyes, he looked as usual. The mercenary, now deformed beyond human shape, split his mouth wide in a grin and spoke.

“Sooome-thing, tooo, seeee, heeere.”

They even accepted his distorted voice as normal within their hallucinations. It happened to be mealtime. The ‘mercenary’ bent his body over the food they had been boiling. Black fluids dripped down from his body. The intact food instantly rotted and gave off a stench. But in their hallucinations, his comrades only saw and smelled it as they normally would.

“Looks good. Let’s eat.”

They each ladled the food into their bowls. They devoured food that no human should eat with gusto. Only the mid-level awakener tilted his head, suspicious.

“Did it spoil a bit?”

“That much is nothing. It always spoils fast here.”

“Well, that’s true. Let’s just clear the next zone and get out quick.”

With that, the others ate the revolting food as if it were nothing. One mercenary, patting his full stomach, drank some coffee, then suddenly stood up on his feet. Then he shouted in a greatly excited tone.

“Hey, it’s weird. I feel like I got stronger. I really… feel it. Yeah!”

The mercenary, arms outstretched, trembled as if he was seized by some cheap, foul exhilaration.

“I think I reawakened!”

Then the other mercenaries also began shouting. Though the corruption wasn’t yet visible outside their bodies, black foam bubbled at their mouths as they cried out.

“Keuhuhuhuhaha! Me too! Me too!”

“Me too, me too, me too! I reawakened!”

“Kkihhoooh! Kyahhoooh! I reawakened! I’m lucky! I’ve reawakened like Lee Hyunmook!”

They forgot entirely that they were in a dangerous rift zone, and jumped up and down like children in delight. Black foam bubbled from their noses, mouths, and ears, but they paid no attention. All of them were in a frenzy, unable to sense anything wrong.

While the corrupted humans burned away their life force in their joy, the deformed mercenary picked up a phone someone had dropped. The video they had been watching during their meal was showing Park Seungmin’s ability.

“Liiight, draaaaws.”

This avatar of the ‘black, unfathomable, twisted, revolting thing,’ which had felt crisis and ran from its nest, had neither sight, nor touch, nor smell, only hunger. It always perceived everything through hunger. Big and tasty. Small and tasty. Especially big and tasty.

And, something it should never swallow. Its natural enemy, who rarely appeared over the distant past.

It was something so dangerous that it could never be left as it was, something that had to crawl out of its cozy nest.

Through the twisted eyesight of a human it had taken over, it barely recognized the familiar shape of light. But unable to distinguish people, the deformed mercenary’s voice cracked.

“Puuri, fiier… aak, khhk, rii…?”

Dozens, hundreds of repetitions in an instant. The pronunciation grew more refined each time.

“Puuuuri, pu, pu, puriii, fiii, fier, purifiier! Purifier! Purifierpurifierpurifierpurifierpurifierpurifierpurifierpurifierpurifierpurifierpurifierpurifierpurifierpurifierpurifierpurifierpurifierpurifierpurifierpurifierpurifierpurifierpurifierpurifierpurifierpurifierpurifierpurifierpurifierpurifierpurifierpurifierpurifierpurifierpurifierpurifierpurifierpurifierpurifierpurifierpurifierpurifierpurifierpurifierpurifier….”

“Purifier! Purifier! Purifier!”

The obsessive chant went on without end, until even the mercenaries hopping beside him echoed it, bewitched, crying out “Purifier.”

***

When Yohan woke after a deep sleep, he was simply glad that the sight before his eyes was the familiar room.

“This feels nice!”

He had purified the dust-covered room, and now, pleased with the clean result, Yohan was idling around when some he heard commotion from his brother’s room. His brother, awake, rushed out to the living room in a panic.

“Mother! Father! What on earth happened?!”

“Yosep, you’re awake! How do you feel?”

Their parents, who had been up long before their sons, prepared breakfast and wandered around, were overjoyed to see the eldest. Aware of how gravely corrupted he had been, Yang Yosep felt happy, but also bewildered. He had been half-unconscious and cut off from all outside news, he knew nothing of the astonishing things that had recently happened.

“Was I dreaming a nightmare? I was definitely corrupted, so how did this….”

As he groped his body, Yosep felt Yohan’s presence and turned his head around. His expression crumbled when he saw his younger brother step out of the room.

“…Yang Yohan?”

Yang Yosep approached and stood before Yohan, his expression looked like he was wondering whether he was still dreaming. Yohan had embraced his parents and wept tears of joy upon reuniting with them, but before his brother he only felt glad yet awkward, Yosep ran his fingers over Yohan’s body here and there, then finally opened his eyes wide.

“You…!”

He had so much to say, but swallowed it down, and instead pulled his brother into a hug. At first he seemed to hold back his strength, then he suddenly pushed Yohan away as if something was wrong. He seemed to be trying to to gauge something, he gripped him, shook him , before finally throwing a punch.

“Ah! That hurts!”

As if to test his durability, Yang Yosep hit his arms and back hard. Yohan forgot his joy and emotion and got annoyed.

“I said it hurts!”

“…You’re sturdy, aren’t you? You awakened?”

Yang Yosep, who was muttering in a daze, surprised by his younger brother’s awakening, soon turned angry.

“You reckless bastard! Even so, how could you go to an awakening party when there was no guarantee you’d awaken? They’re called awakening parties, but how could you know you wouldn’t end up facing thuggish scammers, throwing yourself into danger…!”

“Who hit their brother the moment you saw him!”

Yohan, as always, instinctively dodged. If Yosep hadn’t risked corruption searching for him, he might have fought back. So he endured. It wasn’t because he instinctively felt that his brother’s… his attack power… was stronger than his own.

“Hey, you…! You’re not coming here?!”

“Yosep, stop chasing Yohan. Thanks to him, you were able to recover safely.”

When Yang Hwapyeong defended Yohan, Yosep paused. He had found it too strange that his corruption had disappeared.

“That idiot did what for me? How?”

Yosep gave up on punishing his brother for now and sat down on the sofa. Relieved, Yohan also sat, putting his parents between them like a shield, and keeping his distance.

The story that Yohan had fallen into the Abyss and returned, and moreover had become a purifier, a high-level awakener, was unbelievable to Yosep. It was miracle enough that his brother had come back alive, but now he was a high-level awakener? And even survived the Abyss alongside Lee Hyunmook and others? But when Yohan showed his ability, he couldn’t doubt it.

“Him? A high-level awakener? That one?”

Yohan was quite upset being called “him” and “that one” stung, but he endured it. His brother’s fist was too close. Though he was a high-level awakener, he was of the healer type, and the fact that he couldn’t overpower his brother, a mid-level dealer, was frustrating. Yet at the same time, facing the familiar daily life he had longed for over the past year, moved him to tears again.

Yang Yosep, staring intently at Yohan, gestured.

“Come here.”

“You’re just going to hit me.”

“Come here while I’m still asking nicely.”

Yohan reluctantly shuffled toward him. Keeping a little distance, he asked, “What?” Yosep, instead of hitting or scolding, spoke slowly.

“Thank you.”

“What?”

“You worked hard, and thank you.”