FLIA 36

Kyaaaagh! Kyaaagh!

The swarm of poisoned monkeys shrieked with human-like screams as they tried to flee, but it was already too late. The dense, heavy, and lethal toxin seeped through their skin.

If Lee Hyunmook’s attacks were suited for taking on individual targets, Yoon Seungryong’s abilities were more useful in wide-area combat. Before falling into the Abyss, he rarely used such large-scale power out of concern for his teammates. But now, he could unleash his energy as he pleased, because there was no one in his group vulnerable to his poison.

The toxin swelled like a rising tide, spreading even to the monkeys trying to escape, and it reached both Yohan and Lee Hyunmook nearby. But when it touched the band of light surrounding Yohan, it dissolved like mist and vanished.

Lee Hyunmook, for his part, stood silently, unbothered by the poison. Exposure to Seungryong’s toxin caused him no significant harm. Even so, Yohan quietly stepped closer and expanded his purification field around Hyunmook.

Lee Hyunmook, who had been roasting approaching monkeys with lightning, glanced over with the faintest frown.

“Yohan-ah… you need to conserve your power.”

“But it still hurts when the poison touches you, doesn’t it? It’s fine like this.”

Even if it didn’t cause real damage, Yohan didn’t want to be the only one purifying and standing alone. With a touch of ulterior motive, he edged closer just as a few monkeys, unable to withstand the pain, jumped into the flower field.

The flowers’ reaction was explosive.
The moment contact was made, the petals spread wide, then immediately tightened like buds and released a massive cloud of concentrated pollen.

The monkeys that inhaled the pollen seemed to forget their pain and began prancing through the flowers. Each time one touched a bloom, more pollen burst forth, and soon all the flowers began releasing pollen in a chain reaction. Even the petals began fluttering, fanning the air aggressively. In an instant, the entire area was engulfed in a thick cloud of pollen.

Yoon Seungryong, still dealing with the monkeys, cursed loudly.

“Shit, now what the hell is this?!”

“Seungryong-hyung! Are you okay?”

Yohan called out frantically, but before he could even process what was happening, a firm yet gentle grip clamped around his waist. In the next instant, his vision turned completely white with pollen.

Through the haze, he barely made out Seungryong’s shape as the older man shouted,

“Yohan! Stay right where you—”

“Seungryong-hyung?!”

His voice was suddenly cut off. The only thing Yohan could hear now was the chorus of howling monsters. He turned his head to look at the figure clutching him.

“I-Mr. Hyunmook, Seungryong-hyung is—!”

But his sentence trailed off. The thing gripping his waist wasn’t Lee Hyunmook at all. It was a thick, shaggy black tail.

He turned his head stiffly, and through the dense yellow mist, he saw gleaming red eyes glaring at him. Yohan screamed in terror.

“Let go! Let me go! Lee Hyunmook! Seungryong-hyung!”

He struggled desperately, but the grip around his waist only tightened. The creature leapt, soaring through the air.

“No!”

It jumped with such strength that it cleared several meters in a single bound. Yohan frantically looked around, but neither Seungryong nor Hyunmook was in sight.

Was the monster just that fast? Or had the others not yet realized he was gone, or maybe they simply couldn’t catch up. Yohan pounded on the tail coiled around him until he remembered something Hyunmook had once said:

‘You’re better off not attacking unless you really know the monster. Some explode when hit, some stick like glue, or you might attack an ally under an illusion.’

And in those cases, he had said, use purification to disrupt them instead.

Clinging to that advice, Yohan gripped the tail tightly and pushed all his purifying energy into it. The black tail began to react… but instead of turning back into a normal animal’s tail, it swelled up even bigger.

“Huh? Wh-what…?”

As Yohan gaped, the flower field had vanished entirely from view. They were now deep inside the dense jungle.

He prayed that Hyunmook or Seungryong would find him soon, but no one came. They’d said if anyone got separated, it’d be nearly impossible to find them again…Despair washed over him. Worse still, he was being carried off by a monster. He wasn’t a damage dealer, he could be killed in seconds.

Pouring all his power into a final burst of light, he tried to revert the creature into something like a bear, a wolf, a monkey, anything.

But instead, the tail coiled around him grew softer, fluffier… thicker. His pupils trembled in disbelief. All his efforts failed.

At last, the monster stopped moving.
Yohan, still wrapped in its luxurious tail, finally saw what had taken him.

It was just… a void.

A mass of blackness. Yohan remembered a video he’d seen once, something about the world’s blackest black. No light reflected off it, even under a flashlight. That was what this looked like. Or rather… it felt like darkness itself.

Even in the Abyss, this jungle was unnaturally dark. So dark, his lights barely touched it. It had a vague, lumpish body, a long tail, and only a pair of chilling, red eyes gleaming in the center.

“Hhh… ugh…”

Yohan trembled. The monster growled low and let him go. He stumbled back instinctively. then turned to run, and—

“AAAGH!”

Another one. Now there were two.
Both equally pitch black, oozing and slick-looking. Wait, no. There were two more smaller ones nearby. He hadn’t noticed them until now. Four monsters in total. The situation worsened by the second. Yohan felt like he might pass out.

He tried to bolt. As a high-level awakener, he thought he’d gotten faster, but it wasn’t enough.
The tail wrapped around him again and dragged him back.

Two of the creatures let out eerie growls, moving in closer. They were going to tear him apart. Bite him, kill him, and because he was a high-level awakener, he wouldn’t even die quickly.

He would suffer, for a long, long time.
The brutal images racing through his mind made him sick. As the monsters growled, his stomach churned violently. He couldn’t hold it back.

“Uuugh… bleeegh…”

He threw up right there on the ground.
Then, crawling away, he curled into a ball like a hedgehog and began sobbing.

“Don’t come near me… don’t… please…”

He cried, thinking that maybe Hyunmook or Seungryong had been hurt, or even gone mad. If he, the purifier, died here, what would happen to them? But strangely… nothing attacked him.

When he finally lifted his tear-streaked face, the monsters that had approached so threateningly were gone.
Still hiccuping, Yohan looked around frantically.

“Hic… wh-what the hell…?”

He couldn’t understand why they hadn’t attacked or why they had retreated. Now left alone in the dark, twisted jungle, the fear of being alone hit him even harder than the threat of being devoured.

Somewhere in the distance, he heard that irritating laugh again.

Frightened, Yohan staggered to his feet.
After a few steps, he collapsed beside a tree stump and began sobbing uncontrollably again.

“H-huwaaaaah… I’m lost! What do I do now…!”

His tears soaked the soil beneath him.
Where they fell, faint sprouts emerged from a flattened dark-purple bush, and fresh moss bloomed. That spot alone turned a soft, light green.

Yohan cried until he was exhausted.
At last, wiping his tears on his sleeve, he pulled himself together.

“Hic… I have to go back…”

He squeezed out his courage. If Seungryong or Hyunmook had gone mad, he was the only one who could deal with it. But he still believed they were strong enough to survive.

He examined the monster’s footprints and guessed at the direction of the flower field. If he didn’t find them there, he’d return to the shelter they’d used on the first day.

Sniffling and wiping his nose, he trudged into the dark jungle.

“…Ack!”

Suddenly, one of those monsters reappeared. It hadn’t been there before, but now it was, right in front of him.

Yohan screamed and tried to run, only to be caught again. He clawed at the tail wrapped around him, but it didn’t budge.

“I-I taste bad! I’m not tasty, okay?!”

What good was being a high-level awakener if he had no attack abilities?!

He reached for the emergency knife he’d kept just in case and stabbed the tail with all his strength.

Clang!

The knife snapped with a crisp sound.
The blade flew off into the bushes. Yohan stared, horrified, at the broken hilt. So this is why they told me not to attack recklessly…!

Then the squirming monster opened its mouth and chomped down on the hand holding the handle. He froze. But instead of biting it off, it just took the hilt and spat it out with a ptooey.

His hand was intact, but the futility of all his resistance brought tears to his eyes again. He sobbed quietly, trembling, bracing for pain.

And then, he heard it.

[Weak.]

[So weak.]