FLIA 143

Drawn by that voice, they ended up at the ceremony celebrating the returnees of the Abyss. Other corrupted gave almost identical testimony to the woman’s.

“They mistook corruption for awakening.”

“In some ways, it did make them stronger.”

Lee Hyunmook accepted that calmly. Corruption twisted both flesh and spirit. It resembled mutation caused by radiation or chemicals, but unlike ordinary mutation, it remained endlessly unnatural, a process that trapped living creatures in unending pain. It also meant drifting farther from humanity.

In the end, even after Yohan’s purification, neither Lee Hyunmook nor the others, nor countless beings of the Abyss, could fully return to their previous state.

‘Above all, isn’t it because they kept using their powers like life-or-death battles?’

Anyone would advance like that if they kept using their powers without pause for so many years. The low-level would surpass the mid-level, the mid-level would surpass the high-level. After struggling among monsters for centuries, of course they became strong.

“Hyung, are you alright?”

“Hm? Me?”

Lost in some deep thought, Lee Hyunmook looked puzzled at Yohan’s concern.

“People keep talking about reawakening, doing reckless things because of it… It bothers you, right”

Yohan trailed off while looking at Lee Hyunmook’s hair that had turned white. With someone as good as his lover, he would surely feel burdened, knowing his own reawakening talk had created innocent victims.

“Ah…”

Lee Hyunmook let out a faint sound, as though he had realized what Yohan was worried about. Then his eyes curved in a smile.

“Thank you for worrying about me, Yohan-ah.”

You really see me as human, words slipped out like wind passing by. Yohan, who caught them, lifted his head and looked into Hyunmook’s black eyes.

“Of course, because you are human?”

“…Yes.”

Lee Hyunmook nodded obediently and agreed with Yohan’s words. Light hovered in hid eyes that had been dark only a moment ago.

“If you’re human, then you must care about things like this.”

Yohan walked with a more relieved heart at Lee Hyunmook’s answer. Just then, Yoon Seungryong came running, reeking of delicious smells after cooking for the crowd. He looked like an excited Labrador retriever.

“Let’s have a barbecue party! The old nag hauled in a kraken!”

“…What? What did she bring?”

Kraken? Yohan froze just as he was about to echo his excitement. At that moment a tentacle whipped up from the isolation building’s roof and then dropped limply. Yohan doubted his own eyes.

Of course, rifts didn’t open only on land. Sometimes they appeared in places like fisheries, and marine ones caused even more trouble. Even awakeners couldn’t chase monsters across the vast sea.

They hurried over. An endlessly long, just long, absurdly long silver snake lay sprawled in tangled coils. Its length gave it a cephalopod look, which explained why Seungryong had called it a kraken. Seo Yakrin, who had beaten it with telekinesis, wiped sweat from her forehead and smiled.

“It was attacking a nearby fish farm. Looks tasty, right?”

“Uh…”

“Oh, this? King crab! They were swarming at the bottom, so I grabbed some while tearing open the sea. I’ll boil them up tasty for our Yohan!”

Seungryong muttered at her side, drooling, “I’ll be the one boiling them anyway, but she hogs the credit.”

Yohan purified their catch without complaint. They had taken so much it filled the hold of an entire fishing vessel.

They decided to cook the creature that looked like cutlassfish just among teammates. Even purified, feeding it to civilians with weak regeneration and immunity seemed wrong. Instead, the abundant king crabs could be shared widely, enough for everyone in the center. So they chose to make the barbecue a feast for everyone on the island.

Fresh meat arrived in haste from land. Crabs boiled, stews simmered, meat roasted and steamed, filling the air with rich smells. The faces of the hesitant people emerging from isolation brightened one after another. They weren’t completely purified yet, but their corruption was mild, and soon they would be fully healed.

Ju Hoyoung put music on through the supply ship’s speakers. Cheerful songs filled the air. People laughed, talked, ate. Some wept, but it was cleansing weeping. Others, simply overjoyed, danced nonstop. Everyone ate and drank until full, happiness on their faces. Delicious food comforted human hearts. That was the greatest fact Yohan had learned in the Abyss.

After eating the grilled salted cutlassfish and crab, Yohan went up to the rooftop of the treatment center. He watched the beautiful coral-colored sunset. A moment later, Lee Hyunmook had quietly taken a seat beside him. Yohan leaned his head against his lover and hummed softly.

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One day a star suddenly fell

Countless nights without light passed

Standing alone in the silent wilderness

I waited for a long promise

One day beyond the wildflower fields

May my beloved appear

May the sun rise here someday

I waited for a long promise…

A light that glittered according to the owner’s mood was scattered around the excited Yohan. Unlike the Abyss where time never shifted, the sunset went down and the pastel-toned color of the evening came down. Fires lit for the barbecue flickered. The moon and stars in the night sky without pollution were beautiful. Lee Hyunmook couldn’t hold back his affection for his savior and kissed him reverently.

So passed the first night in a long time, since the rifts opened, without burden or fear. Everyone happy, everyone at peace.

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The next day Yohan confirmed that the people’s corruption had almost been purified. Mixing his power into drinks and water bit by bit had worked. Yet sending them off the island right away had too many difficulties. For now, they would stay on the island.

Some disliked the delay. But because the one making the promise was Lee Hyunmook, they gave in without resistance. With incurable corruption erased, their attitude turned cooperative. Yohan prepared to leave the island, content.

“Excuse me, wait…!”

One of them came running in haste. Yohan thought the words were meant for Lee Hyunmook. But the woman with scratches all over her body hurried straight to him, held his hand tight, and thanked him again and again.

“Thank you. Thank you so much for letting me see my mother again.”

Embarrassed and shy, Yohan’s face flushed red, his lips quivered and he quickly replied.

“We’ll do our best to reunite you with your family soon.”

“Yes! I can wait as long as it takes!”

Escorted by their farewell, Yohan boarded the ship and opened his hand. A small sheep doll sat there. Likely the people at the center, after seeing the Taeyang Team’s uniform with the sheep emblem, had managed to scrounge cloth and made it. Hyunmook, who was looking at it with him, smiled gently.

“Yangyang is really cute.”

That must mean he himself was cute. Yohan no longer doubted, he accepted it as obvious.

“By the way, I never said I was a purifier. How did they know?”

“They were corrupted. They must have felt it. Same way we did.”

Perhaps. Yohan attached the sheep doll to his bag with Seo Yakrin’s deft help. Now two sheep keychains dangled. One was the one he had received from Lee Hyunmook in the Abyss. There was two sheep together, so it was really “Yangyang.” Yohan thought while fiddling with the fluffy sheep dolls.

‘…Time to start.’

They left the island, returned to the Taeyang Guild, and heard unexpected news. The moment they reached land and regained internet, messages poured into the team’s phones. Checking the news, Yohan’s eyes widened.

“They say Park Seungmin was kidnapped?”

“Kidnapped? Good riddance.”

Seo Yakrin answered with a flat tone. Just as Yohan bore hatred for Go Jaewon, they too held hatred for his enemy. Yohan frowned and read the article carefully.

“Apparently some foreign tycoon did it… But he was rescued only days later.”

Yohan tilted his head, not a hint of worry or pity, only pure puzzlement. The timing felt uncanny.

Right when the Taeyang Team was stuck on a remote island without signal, tending severe corruption cases, this happened. Thanks to that timing, even though the guild hadn’t taken part in the rescue, they escaped public criticism.

Then Yohan lifted his eyes by chance and Lee Chanha smiling faintly with a meaningful look. …Could it be? Chanha-hyung?