FLIA 73

As Yohan became a high-level awakener, his enhanced vision let him clearly see what the two were doing. Seo Yakrin boldly walked into the Black Mountain, squatted down, stretched out her hand, and after fiddling with something, lay flat on her back. Ju Hoyoung, Yoon Seungryong, and Lee Hyunmook nearby remained calm, but Yohan couldn’t sit still.

He was overwhelmed with anxiety. What if his suggestion had been pointless? What if the Black Mountain suddenly swallowed up Seo Yakrin or Ju Hoyoung? Even after nearly an hour passed, the two showed no signs of returning. Eventually, Ju Hoyoung returned quickly from their direction and conveyed Seo Yakrin’s message.

“She says it might take a while, so we should go back, have dinner, and sleep.”

“How long is a while? And it’s not dangerous or anything, right?”

“Don’t worry, Yohan hyung! Yakrin noona’s pretty strong!”

Ju Hoyoung replied cheerfully, seeming genuinely unconcerned. Reluctantly, Yohan left the two behind and returned to the old tree, reminding them to come back for meals.

Even after returning to the old tree, Seo Yakrin didn’t come back for quite a while. It wasn’t until the next morning, after Yohan had finally managed to get some sleep and woke up to Yoon Seungryong preparing breakfast, that Seo Yakrin returned with Ju Hoyoung.

“Yakrin noona! Hoyoung ah!”

Yohan jumped up to greet them happily, and the frown on Seo Yakrin’s face lit up.

“Our Yohan! Were you worried about your noona?”

She strode up and softly touched his cheek with her fingertips, but her eyes gradually lost focus. Gritting her teeth, she moved to suddenly hug him with force, but Lee Hyunmook pulled Yohan away just in time. Seo Yakrin’s arms closed around empty air. Her eyebrows shot up, and crimson-black flames flared in her eyes.

“Why does the Team Leader always monopolize Yohan?! Give him to me now! Or I won’t sit still!”

She shouted fiercely, her eyes and voice blazing with fury. Her whole demeanor suggested she was about to unleash her power. Golden waves radiated from her, and her hair floated as if gravity had disappeared. Ju Hoyoung let out a squeak, clutched his game console tightly, and backed far away. Yoon Seungryong, who was simmering a chicken soup made from bone birds and meat birds, tasted it and muttered while sprinkling salt.

“Damn, is she nuts? She’s even mouthing off to the Team Leader…”

Though Seo Yakrin looked like she might attack any second, she hesitated when Lee Hyunmook simply stared at her in silence. Sensing the red aura in her eyes, Yohan realized that this sudden rage was due to the madness caused by corruption. Usually, the more a corrupted person used their abilities, the more the madness intensified. It seemed Seo Yakrin had used a lot of power inside the Black Mountain.

Yohan quickly showered her with light, and the fury in her eyes, which had been aimed at Lee Hyunmook, slowly calmed. After regaining her senses, her eyes trembled. As Lee Hyunmook continued silently watching, her head gradually drooped. Once she was fully subdued, he spoke calmly.

“Yakrin-ah.”

“…Yes.” (응 / 어 = informal “yes” 네 = polite “yes”)

Like Yoon Seungryong once had, Seo Yakrin became polite and used formal speech.

“If you can’t control your power, stay away from Yohan.”

“…Yes.”

With just his gaze, Lee Hyunmook had defused the situation, and Ju Hoyoung hurried back. Embarrassed, Yohan purified Seo Yakrin a little more. He was a high-level awakener too, so even if Seo Yakrin hugged him tightly, he’d probably just get a little bruised, but it was still awkward. Or maybe not? Once he confirmed she had calmed down, Lee Hyunmook suggested,

“Let’s eat first and then talk?”

Everyone was both curious about the results of the communication with the Black Mountain and also hungry, so they gathered around. After eating about three or four birds each, Seo Yakrin pulled something out from her clothes.

“I managed to bring back a few Eternal Stones.”

The stones she pulled out glowed with a colorful light. Yohan glanced at his own, which was a mix of black and white. Despite all the purification, its base color remained black. It felt like it had been pitch black from the start, but had taken on a white core thanks to Yohan’s energy.

“And also…”

Seo Yakrin paused for a moment, then delivered the answer everyone had been waiting for.

“It did respond to the conversation.”

“Really?”

Yohan’s eyes widened. He had suggested it on a whim, and it actually worked? He was burning with curiosity to know what the Black Mountain had said. But Seo Yakrin’s expression didn’t look happy. She looked conflicted and somewhat disturbed.

“Those Eternal Stones… they all came from different places.”

Yohan was briefly confused, then realized what she meant.

“So, Earth wasn’t the first. That damned freak has been devouring places… from countless times and worlds.”

Her words hinted that the Abyss had swallowed countless unknown worlds over endless years. A heavy silence fell. Yohan felt a renewed fear of the Abyss, this immense, dreadful thing with a transcendent malice beyond human comprehension.

“Well, yeah. There were way too many to be just from Earth.”

Yoon Seungryong muttered with a faint chuckle. Yohan looked at the faint outline of the Black Mountain in the distance and felt overwhelmed. Thinking about how rare Eternal Stones were when defeating monsters, the sheer number forming that mountain was absurd.

“And? Was there anything else?”

Ju Hoyoung asked without much expectation. Seo Yakrin shrugged.

“It really hates and is hostile toward the Flood.”

“Well, of course.”

It was expected. Eternal stones were like bone fragments left behind after being corroded, twisted, and half-digested by the Flood. It was only natural they’d hate the thing that made them that way.

“And I asked this too. If there’s a way to get out of here. Like I said before, it wasn’t like talking to a person. Even getting the question across was really hard.”

Everyone already looked resigned before she even finished. Her expression hadn’t exactly inspired hope.

“But it did give one answer.”

Then she raised her hand and pointed downward, toward the ground.

“It said to go below.”

“Below…?”

Yohan asked again, confused. Seo Yakrin shrugged.

“More specifically, it said to go beneath the Black Mountain. But I don’t know if it even understood my question properly. Why would it say to go below?”

Below the Black Mountain.

As soon as Yohan heard that, his trauma flared. The time he was buried alive in the Black Mountain was the most terrifying experience he’d had in the abyss. The others were all deep in thought. Yoon Seungryong lay down with his eyes closed, Seo Yakrin glared at the mountain, and Ju Hoyoung wasn’t even playing his beloved game. As for Lee Hyunmook…

“Want to sleep?”

“…No.”

Yohan shook his head and sat closer to Lee Hyunmook, glanced around nervously, and then secretly fiddled with his hand. Lee Hyunmook smiled, grabbed Yohan’s twitching fingers, then let go. After playing with his hand for a bit, Yohan asked,

“Are we going to go under the Black Mountain?”

“Not sure. Do we really have to? Even Yakrin isn’t sure it understood her.”

He was right. Even if Seo Yakrin had interpreted things correctly, could they really trust that mass of mysterious eternal stones?

“But… it might be a clue to getting out of the abyss, right?”

“Maybe. Why, do you want to go?”

“No. It’s way too scary.”

Yohan answered with a shiver. He still often had nightmares of being buried beneath the Black Mountain. Even if it turned into a rainbow crystal mountain, he’d still be too scared to go near it. Then something occurred to him.

“By the way… this Abyss. What kind of structure does it have? Is it shaped like a round planet, like Earth?”

The fastest human among them, Ju Hoyoung, answered.

“It’s just like a floating landmass. You know how flat-earthers think the Earth is flat? They’d love this place.”

Yohan got what he meant. He’d seen that kind of image before, a flat continent floating in space.

“Once you get past the special zones, there’s a never-ending wasteland. And past that, there’s just cliffs. Beyond the cliffs is that horrific sky stretching out forever.”

“Ugh. Sounds like a nightmare. I don’t want to see that.”

Seo Yakrin shuddered. What must Ju Hoyoung have felt when he finally reached that cliff after all that running? It must have been soul-crushing. Everyone here had tried everything to escape the abyss. After despairing over and over, it had taken them a long, painful time to speak so calmly like now.

“Anyway, we’ve dug into the ground before, haven’t we? So what’s the big deal about going under the Black Mountain?”

Yoon Seungryong yawned. When asked, he explained that no matter where they dug, they always hit a dense bedrock layer they couldn’t penetrate. But hearing that brought another memory to Yohan’s mind.