FLIA 68

“…An idea?”

Ju Hoyoung asked blankly, as if his brain had shut off. Yohan, gripping his freezing arm tightly, answered with force.

“It’s raining. So… we just need to give them an umbrella. I’ve developed a new ability. If I can just purify Hyunmook-hyung, somehow, it’ll work.”

His voice trembled but remained steady with conviction. Ju Hoyoung’s mouth parted slightly in surprise. He was the only one who didn’t know what “umbrella” meant. So he was deceived by Yohan’s words, or perhaps, he let himself be.

“Okay. Let’s go back… We’re going back. This time… we can’t run away. Yeah. I… I wanted to do this at least once too. Because you’re here, Yohan…”

He laughed with a sob-like sound, then lifted Yohan onto his back again and started heading back the way they came. But as they approached the area where the Flood rained down, his speed slowed and eventually stopped.

“Ugh, urgh, ugh–blegh!”

Ju Hoyoung doubled over, vomiting violently, tearing at his hair and screaming. Yohan got down from his back and stared wide-eyed through the parted reeds at the horrifying scene ahead.

There were no humans left.

Only filth, revulsion, and monstrous abominations.

Small and large creatures intertwined beneath the black rain, growing rapidly before bursting and melting down, only to writhe again, latch onto each other, grow, burst, and melt once more. It was like watching a nightmare made real. Yohan, stunned, murmured,

“Is that… Seungryong-hyung…?”

One of the things was crawling across the ground. A gelatinous blob with countless tentacles groped and devoured the earth while laughing grotesquely. A monstrous bird-like creature, resembling Seo Yakrin, dragged its unnaturally long wings and pecked at the crawling thing like a bug. In response, the tentacles burrowed into the bird’s torso, melting it. Even as chunks of its body fell away, the giant bird relentlessly pecked at the crawling thing.

Fighting back nausea, Yohan instinctively searched for Lee Hyunmook. He’d braced himself to see a monster, but Hyunmook, strangely, was the only one who remained human-shaped, his head hanging low.

The rain streaming from his hair down his pale cheeks looked like ordinary rain. But something dark dripped from his features, soaking the ground beneath him. Even the frenzied beasts avoided that darkness.

Snapping out of his trance, Yohan felt Ju Hoyoung clinging to his leg, whispering incoherently and trying to hold him back. But even without that, he couldn’t move any closer.

“I… I have to purify him.”

That had to come first. With trembling hands, he raised his weapon. A radiant light spread from its core.

But that was all.

It merely cleansed a small patch of the Flood nearby. Nothing else changed. Here, his light was just that, light. Tears streamed down Yohan’s cheeks again. He sobbed and sobbed, then forced himself to focus.

‘Get a grip, Yang Yohan! This isn’t the time to cry!’

He slapped his cheeks hard enough to make a sound, clenched his jaw, and concentrated. Slowly, the umbrella-like beam he had once created unfurled again. He exhaled deeply, then extended the radiant light over Ju Hoyoung.

“Buff me, Hoyoung-ah.”

Only after receiving the light pouring down from above did Ju Hoyoung lift his dazed face and, with shaking hands, cast a buff on Yohan. The purifying light cloaking his body swelled, as if ready to overflow. Yohan created another umbrella of light and cast it over himself.

Then, he began to walk, through the downpour of the Flood.

The black rain, dreadful and thick, turned into clear droplets the moment it touched the glowing umbrella. Yohan stumbled slowly through the reed field, now dark and terrifying. Dead birds struck his shoulders and back. His vision blurred from tears and rain, but he left it that way on purpose. Without that haze, he wouldn’t have been able to endure the living nightmare surrounding him.

Eventually, he reached the place where Lee Hyunmook stood. He extended the umbrella over him and reached out, fumbling.

“Hyun… Hyunmook-hyung…”

Trembling in fear, Yohan hugged him tightly from behind and held his breath. The man who had once radiated heat now felt like a cold stone. He didn’t breathe, no motion that suggested life. It was like hugging a human-shaped void. Yohan almost longed for the days when he was just a madman.

Come back. Please, come back. Just come back as yourself, without that terrifying look. Please…

Sobbing, Yohan hugged the awful, dreadful thing tightly. Eyes squeezed shut, he poured purification into it again and again.

Then, the thing shaped like Lee Hyunmook moved slightly and tapped the hands around its waist.

Yohan.

It tapped again. A faint, barely perceptible touch, one that couldn’t even kill an ant. Yohan, forehead pressed to his back, trembled violently and slowly moved his hands. As he loosened his grip, something cool gently unfolded his fingers, one by one.

Yohan…

It wasn’t quite a human voice, more like a strange melody. But Yohan understood what it meant. Unable to face the hollow void that had replaced Hyunmook’s face, he cried and followed its guidance. He raised his weapon. The light from the Eternity Stone at its tip expanded just enough to shelter them both.

Let’s try…

Yohan raised his trembling arms and held the weapon high. The light at the Eternity Stone’s tip grew.

Spread it as wide as you can…

A parasol under the sun, a spring picnic tent, a big umbrella on a rainy day, a snow globe, the canopy over a Buddha statue, a soft bedroom veil, a curtain hung over a sunlit window, or something like you…

Something radiant and filled with love.

Even now, he remained gentle and kind. Crying uncontrollably, Yohan thought of something bright and lovely. The first image that came to mind wasn’t life on Earth, but their peaceful home in the Japanese zone. Sharing meals, talking, gardening, decorating… that life felt so distant, so long ago.

The moment he brought Hyunmook back from madness. When he cooked for Yoon Seungryong. When he purified a gaming console for Ju Hoyoung. Sitting around a campfire, chatting, laughing, feeling safe…

Yohan wished with all his heart.

I don’t want to wander this desolate, lonely, dark reed field anymore. I don’t want to run from the Flood anymore. I want peace. Comfort. No, what Yang Yohan wants more than anything right now is–

“I just… I just want these people to stop suffering!”

Yohan screamed with all his heart as tears streamed down. The light at the tip of the Eternity Stone condensed, and then exploded outward.

Countless beams of light soared into the air, then curved gently downward like meteors. But instead of falling and fading, they became an endless cascade of radiant arcs, an eternal descent of light. The light, spreading like a massive dome, enveloped every inch of the Flood-soaked land.

Just like when he’d saved Lee Hyunmook before, Yohan released an immense wave of light. A halo floated above his head.

Now, the rain that fell was pure and luminous. The twisted, writhing, crumbling creatures stiffened and settled. First, the smallest birds returned to their original forms. Colorful feathers and fluffy chests restored, they chirped cheerfully. Some flew beyond the dome, but most stayed to bask in the warm light and clear rain.

Then Ju Hoyoung, under his little umbrella, looked up at the sky. He smiled, pure and clean, then dashed into the dome to greet the falling rain. A lump of the Flood he accidentally stepped on popped and turned into a puddle.

Next, Seo Yakrin returned.

The black sludge and filthy feathers fell away in clumps. The distorted face softened, and the hatred and rage that had been dripping from it melted like dirty snow under sunlight. To the one tormented by endless rage and despair, peace finally came.