FLIA 65

***

Yohan, who had been sleeping soundly, stirred at the strange sensation on his cheek, a damp, warm, and odd feeling. As soon as he opened his eyes, he was met with the handsome face of Lee Hyunmook. He was so close, Yohan’s eyelashes could’ve brushed against him. Still groggy, Yohan mumbled,

“Did you just eat my cheek…?”

“No?”

Hadn’t this happened before too? Yohan murmured slowly,

“Felt like you did… My ear’s damp too…”

“Yohan-ah, it’s too precious to wear down, so how could I eat him?”

Lee Hyunmook whispered softly into Yohan’s ear.

“Haha.”

Caught off guard by such embarrassingly sweet words the moment he woke up, Yohan let out a laugh. Then, still basking in the warmth of Lee Hyunmook’s arms, he stayed there happily for a while before finally squirming upright. As he rubbed his eyes, Yoon Seungryong silently mouthed from over Yohan’s shoulder:

‘Team leader, have some shame.’ Ju Hoyoung mimed a boo in support. But when Lee Hyunmook turned a firm gaze on them, both men immediately dropped their eyes like scolded puppies. Oblivious to the silent exchange between the three, Yohan stretched with a big yawn. It was time to get walking again.

The four of them grilled and ate lizards and birds until they were sick of it as they wandered the Reed Sea in search of Seo Yakrin. After about a month of this, Lee Hyunmook declared,

“This isn’t going to work. At this rate, it’ll take years.”

“Finally came to your senses. Let’s ditch the old hag and go back to grill some venison.”

Yoon Seungryong, fed up with the tedious search, cheered. Yohan didn’t say it aloud, but he secretly agreed. The Reed Sea was unimaginably vast and deep. Lee Hyunmook ignored Seungryong’s comment completely and slowly scanned their surroundings.

“I thought it couldn’t have gone far with its wings injured… but it seems it flew farther than I expected. And if we get caught by the Flood in this lowland, we’ll be at a disadvantage.”

“True that.”

Ju Hoyoung, who had been diligently patrolling the area at least once a day since the Flood incident, agreed. Deep in thought, Lee Hyunmook pointed toward a massive clump of reeds high above in the sky.

“Let’s climb up there and hang Seungryong.”

Arms crossed, nodding seriously, Yoon Seungryong was a beat late before he realized what he’d just heard.

“…Huh? Come again? You’re gonna do what with me?”

Moments later, Lee Hyunmook had climbed as high as possible onto the reed mass and suspended Yoon Seungryong atop an ice pillar Ju Hoyoung had made, adjusted so Seungryong’s whole body was clearly visible above the reed sea.

“Yakrin hates you as much as you hate her. That makes you perfect bait.”

“Oh, come on!”

Yoon Seungryong squirmed in horror. Grumbling and irritated, he still sat sulkily atop the ice pillar without putting up much of a fight. As bond birds swooped around, curious, and began to annoy him, baring his teeth at them, Yohan asked worriedly,

“Will this actually work?”

“Who knows… Let’s hope it does. Flying creatures are tricky. Their range is too broad. Let’s try hanging him for just a week.”

Lee Hyunmook didn’t sound thrilled about the plan either. Yoon Seungryong, who preferred burrowing deep underground, and the lightning-fast Ju Hoyoung were already difficult to deal with. But a flying Seo Yakrin, one that had taken the form of a massive monstrous bird, was another level. Yohan, recalling that both Seungryong and Hoyoung had been lured out using things they were obsessed with, asked,

“Does Miss Seo Yakrin have anything she’s obsessed with?”

“She does. That guy.”

Lee Hyunmook pointed a finger at Yoon Seungryong. Ju Hoyoung, who had cooperated without a fuss whether Seungryong became bait or not, added,

“Noona really, really, really hates Seungryong hyung. Ever since she came to the Abyss, she’s been super short-tempered. And even before that, they didn’t get along… so yeah, that’s how it ended up.”

Hearing that, Yohan recalled something Lee Hyunmook had once said.

‘Did you… scatter your teammates on purpose?’

‘I couldn’t just let them kill or devour each other. At some point, they stopped listening even if I tried to stop them. I figured they wouldn’t die easily even if I split them up… and maybe, someday, if I went completely mad, I wouldn’t end up doing the worst thing imaginable.’

All Yohan had ever known about the Sunrise Team was from news reports and documentaries. He remembered Seo Yakrin and Seungryong, who had seemed to have a pretty good relationship despite their bickering. The thought that their bond had been torn apart, not by anything else but because of corruption, made Yohan’s heart ache.

“They were at each other’s throats,” Lee Hyunmook said flatly, as if it didn’t matter at all.

Just then, Yoon Seungryong yelled into the void,

“Hey old hag! Come out here right now! I’ll kill you myself! Because of you, I’ve been reduced to this!”

Yohan looked up at the pitiful sight of Seungryong, who would have to remain up there except during meals, and asked in a concerned voice,

“Will he be okay up there for a whole week? The Flood… it’s still chasing us, right?”

The three of them always tried to speak positively so Yohan wouldn’t worry or feel anxious. Even so, Yohan could tell. Not only was the Flood openly targeting and chasing them, it was very likely that he was the reason why. As if reading his mind, Lee Hyunmook replied.

“Considering how fast the massed Flood moves and the range Hoyoung covers in his patrols, we can probably stay put for about a week at most and still be safe. Remember how even in the Japan zone, it took it several months to surround the whole area?”

“Yes, I remember.”

Lee Hyunmook had told him before that the Flood wasn’t some limitless, ever-appearing phenomenon, it had limits. Yohan understood that in theory, but he still couldn’t shake the unease.

“So yeah, we should be fine staying in one spot for up to a week, probably. Hoyoung will keep patrolling the whole time too.”

A week… Yohan looked up at Yoon Seungryong again. Even though Ju Hoyoung was checking daily for signs of the Flood’s approach, the anxiety wouldn’t go away. He could only hope they would reunite with Seo Yakrin safely before the week was up, and get out of this eerie Reed Sea zone as soon as possible.

***

On the fifth day of Yoon Seungryong being suspended at the top of the ice pillar, Lee Hyunmook was listlessly spending time with Yohan at his side when he suddenly lifted his head. His gaze darkened.

“…Get up, Yohan-ah. Seo Yakrin is here.”

At the soft pat on his back, Yohan–who had been dozing off, crouched down–snapped back to alertness. Finally, Seo Yakrin had shown up on the wide and thinly stretched electric field Lee Hyunmook had set to detect her. No sooner had he spoken than a dark shadow swept over their heads, then vanished. The shadow of a massive bird.

Just as planned, Yohan immediately jumped down beneath a large clump of reeds. He finally understood why Seungryong had jumped from a three-story height without hesitation before. This was even higher, yet the impact didn’t feel all that severe.

Ju Hoyoung, already waiting below, quickly pulled Yohan into the reeds with him. They had to keep Yohan out of Seo Yakrin’s sight as much as possible. Only the two damage dealers, Lee Hyunmook and Yoon Seungryong, stood fully exposed, weapons ready, looking up at the great bird circling above.

Yohan couldn’t see it for himself, but he’d heard that Lee Hyunmook had seriously wounded Seo Yakrin back when he was buried deep in the Black Mountain. Just like Hyunmook had said, her flight was unstable and didn’t look like it could be sustained for long. One wing was twisted, and dark-colored bodily fluid was leaking from it.

At last, Seo Yakrin began to descend slowly from the distant sky, and Yohan got a full look at her monstrous form.

She was a massive, black, terrifying bird. Each beat of her wings sent violent gusts of wind crashing down to the ground, kicking up waves across the reed sea. And when he managed to peer through the wind, he saw a face filled with rage. At the end of a long, sinuous neck was Seo Yakrin’s face, inhumanly large, with a gloomy golden hue, twisted into a wrathful grimace like a demon’s.

When she opened her black lips wide, a high-pitched screech ripped through the air as she sucked in wind and his chest expanded. Then–

AaaAAAAAAAGH!

A furious scream erupted.

Yohan, who had quickly covered his ears, groaned as a stabbing pain tore through his head. Blood trickled freely from his ears. His eardrums had ruptured from the blast. Fortunately, thanks to his high-level regeneration, such damage would heal quickly. Noticing the blood running from Yohan’s ear, Ju Hoyoung jumped up in alarm.

“Yohan-hyung, you’re bleeding!”

“I’m fine. I recovered already. What about you?”

Neither Lee Hyunmook nor Yoon Seungryong had even flinched at the eardrum-shattering scream. In fact, it looked like they hadn’t been hurt at all. Yohan figured that made sense for the two damage dealers, but seeing that even Ju Hoyoung, a support, was perfectly fine left him feeling a bit disheartened. Why is everyone here so damn sturdy…?

“I’m okay too!”

As he answered, Ju Hoyoung drew his bow. In his raised hand, shards of ice gathered and condensed into an especially long and thick arrow. He nocked the arrow and pulled the string taut with all his strength, but didn’t release it. Instead, he waited quietly among the reeds beside Yohan, taking aim at Seo Yakrin.