FLIA 77

“I’ll go first, then.”

As soon as Lee Hyunmook issued the command and leapt down, the distance between him and Yohan stretched the chain connecting them taut. The moment that happened, the monsters – who had until then shown no interest– began roaring and crawling up the spiral pit. Open hostility and malice surged forth like a swarm of ants. And each of those ants was a massive monster. Yohan’s heart pounded violently, but the others only looked slightly tense, their faces otherwise calm.

A tremendous bolt of lightning struck the monsters. With an ear-splitting explosion, dozens were reduced to ashes. But compared to the total number of monsters, it was negligible. From the depths of the pit, monsters that had multiplied, evolved, and split over countless years now crawled up like demons.

“Hoyoung-ah, buff and enter.”

Lee Hyunmook shouted as he continued to strike down bolts of lightning. Ju Hoyoung immediately reached out and cast a strengthening buff, but not on Hyunmook. It was on Yohan.

In fact, ever since they’d met Ju Hoyoung, he always buffed Yohan. The combat abilities of Hyunmook and the other teammates were already overwhelming enough that there were hardly any monsters in the Abyss that could match them. Strategically and efficiently, it made more sense to boost Yohan, the purifier.

As Hoyoung’s power soaked into him, purifying energy surged within Yohan’s body, almost ready to overflow. When he infused his weapon, crafted by Seo Yakrin, with his power, the black-and-white Eternal Stone gleamed brilliantly. Enveloping the team in orbs of light, Yohan leapt together with them into the center of the Abyss.

And immediately froze, startled.

‘The air… it’s heavy!’

No, it was more than just startling. It was overwhelming. Hatred, delusion, and despair. Far too much for a human to bear, sank into his lungs like poison. Civilians who stayed in a rift for over two weeks typically began to show mild signs of corruption. But here, even just an hour–no, ten minutes, might be enough to cause severe corruption.

“Yohan-ah, are you okay?”

At Seo Yakrin’s question, Yohan took a deep breath and nodded. He was a purifier, after all. He couldn’t back down because of this.

“I’m okay!”

Immediately, Hyunmook and the other damage dealers launched a fierce offensive. Lightning scorched, deadly poison melted, and powerful telekinesis crushed and pushed back the monsters. Ice arrows rained down like a storm. Thanks to their efforts, they managed to carve a path forward toward the core.

But that was as far as they got. Monsters swarmed in from all directions like wild dogs, endlessly and in overwhelming numbers. Ju Hoyoung, standing nearby, began to gasp for breath.

It wasn’t because they had reached the limits of their power. It was that the more they used their abilities, the faster the madness set in. Unlike Earth, here the use of energy created a void that was quickly filled with corruption. And this place, the core of the Abyss, was more suffocating, more vile, and more concentrated with corruption than anywhere else.

Yohan struggled to stay focused, doing his best to send out the strongest light possible to his teammates. Warm, gentle light pushed against the sticky, heavy air, wrapping around them like a shield. Yet even then, they hadn’t even made it halfway through the pit when Yoon Seungryong was the first to show symptoms.

“Hee, huff… heehee…”

With a wheezing sound like leaking air, he suddenly burst into giggles. A textbook sign of corruption. Horrified, Yohan approached him. Placing a hand on Seungryong’s body, he felt a chill, his body was as cold as a corpse.

“Seungryong hyung! Get a grip!”

“Yeah, Yohan-ah… I’m totally fine. Never felt better in my life!”

Laughing crazily, Seungryong released a dense cloud of poison. The monsters approaching nearby began to dissolve one by one. Seo Yakrin batted them aside and smacked Seungryong hard on the head with a loud thwack. The blow was so fierce that even Yohan gasped.

“You bastard, lose it again and I’ll beat you to death!”

“Are you serious right now? Wanna die? Why don’t you try it, right here?”

“Ha! Like a filthy worm like you could actually kill me.”

The grin vanished from Seungryong’s face as he glared at Seo Yakrin with murderous intent. But Yakrin matched him, her gaze equally deadly. Cold sweat ran down Yohan’s back as he watched them. Ju Hoyoung, drenched in sweat, kept glancing behind them with panicked eyes, he clearly wanted to flee.

Yohan feared that if things went on like this, the situation might spiral into chaos from internal strife. Just then, Hyunmook, who had been at the front, suddenly fell back and pulled Yohan into his arms. His voice was firm and commanding.

“Retreat, now!”

Thankfully, they still had enough rationality left to obey their leader’s order. As Hyunmook carried Yohan back to the cave entrance of the Black Mountain, everyone instinctively followed the light. The moment they escaped from the core of the Abyss, the swarming monsters quieted. Strange creatures with dull, glassy eyes slowly receded back into the depths of the pit.

The moment they escaped, Yohan expanded a purification field large enough to cover the entire team. The glowing light filled the cave and seeped into their trembling, exhausted bodies.

“Haa, haah…”

Ju Hoyoung, who had been drenched in sweat and shaking with anxiety, finally regained some composure. Seo Yakrin and Yoon Seungryong also came to their senses. The red gleam in Hyunmook’s eyes gradually faded. Everyone basked silently in Yohan’s light for a long while. Then Seungryong muttered with a sigh.

“The monsters are bad enough, but the speed of corruption is the real issue… Yohan-ah, don’t get me wrong. I’m not usually that aggressive.”

“Yohan-ah, me too… just now, it was really the corruption. You know that, right?”

The two who’d nearly killed each other just moments ago now scrambled to explain themselves to Yohan. They’d never been particularly close to begin with, but Yohan gave them a small nod. Right now, just not trying to kill each other was enough.

“It’s not enough to protect Yohan and keep moving with our current numbers.”

Ju Hoyoung pointed out the flaw. And he was right. With the corruption worsening by the second, their time inside the core was severely limited. Yohan had to focus entirely on purification, leaving him completely defenseless, and the rest couldn’t focus on clearing the way because of the constant attacks.

If only we had a tank, Yohan thought without meaning to.

If someone could protect him, the rest of the team could focus on advancing. Maybe then they’d be able to reach the core in time. The heavy expressions on everyone’s faces showed they were thinking the same thing. Naturally, one person came to mind. Deputy Leader Lee Chanha, the tank from the Sunrise Team.

But Lee Chanha is dead.

He was considered the only person to have died in the Abyss. Even after nearly a year together, his name was rarely mentioned. It wasn’t just grief or longing, there seemed to be another reason, so Yohan had avoided bringing it up as well.

“The risk is too high to continue. We can’t do this.”

Hyunmook gave the final verdict. The others, still shaken from the ordeal in the core, all agreed. It was disappointing, but unavoidable, and Yohan accepted it quietly. Getting seriously hurt in battle was bad enough, but the worst-case scenario was someone going mad from corruption and fleeing into the pit, vanishing into the horde of thousands, tens of thousands of monsters. If that happened, recovering them would be nearly impossible.

But what surprised Yohan was that neither Hyunmook nor the others seemed very shaken by the failure. Curious, he asked,

“Did you all expect we’d fail?”

“Well… with that many monsters, it was kind of obvious. And not just the monsters, the corruption’s way too extreme.”

Everyone nodded in agreement at Hyunmook’s explanation. Yohan realized he’d been the only one who hadn’t understood the full picture, still holding on to hope. Ju Hoyoung, who looked the most dejected, let out a deep sigh and pulled out his game console, muttering,

“There’s no way to break through. If this were a game raid, we’d be trying with under-leveled gear and no resistance stats.”

Yohan looked glum. Meanwhile, the team took time to rest in the cave. It was rare for them to expend this much effort. Everyone seemed in low spirits, but none more so than Hoyoung, who barely even played his game, just fidgeting with it. The faint game music sounded strangely sad.

“Won’t this path be blocked soon?”

“Definitely. I heard the Flood is starting to move strategically now. No way they’ll leave this place alone. This is the best chance we’ve got to push through.”

Unlike earlier, when they were throwing death threats, Seungryong and Yakrin now whispered with their heads together. Hyunmook, who had been deep in thought for a while, finally spoke.

“If we…”

“No!”

He barely got a word out before Seungryong cut him off. While Yohan blinked in confusion, Hyunmook turned his gaze to Seungryong, who now looked grim. Far more so than when he’d been shouting at Yakrin.