“...A thod?”
Hoyoung asked blankly, his face vacant as if thought itself had left him. Yohan clutched tightly at the freezing body before him and answered with firm resolve.
“It’s raining, isn’t it? Then... we just give them an umbrella. I—I’ve developed a new ability. If I can just purify Hyunmook-hyung, then sohow, it’ll work out.”
His voice, trembling but desperate to persuade, made Hoyoung’s lips part slightly. He was the one person who didn’t know what an “umbrella” was. So he was deceived by Yohan’s words—or perhaps, he let himself be deceived.
“Alright. Let’s go back... we’ll go back. This ti, there’s no running away. Fine. I wanted to ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) do this at least once, anyway. Because you’re here, Yohan...”
With a sound between a sob and a laugh, Hoyoung hoisted Yohan onto his back once more and started back toward where they had fled from. The closer they ca to where the Bumram’s rain fell, the slower Hoyoung beca—until at last he stopped altogether.
“Ahhk, uhh, nghhh, uuuek, bleeghhh!”
Collapsing forward, Hoyoung gagged and retched violently, clutching his head as he scread. Yohan slid off his back and stared, wide-eyed, through the parted reeds at the horrific scene ahead.
There were no people.
Only foul, disgusting, and monstrous things.
Small creatures and massive ones tangled together, growing rapidly under the black rain, swelling until they burst into foul sludge, then crawling back together to grow again, only to burst once more... it was like watching a nightmare reborn into reality. Yohan whispered in a daze.
“Don’t tell ... that’s Seungryong-hyung...”
Among them, sothing crawled across the ground—soft and gelatinous, dozens of tentacles groping and gnawing at the earth, laughing as it went. A massive bird-shape, resembling Seo Yakrin, dragged grotesquely elongated wings as it stalked forward and pecked at the crawling mass like an insect. Tentacles bored into the bird’s body, lting it from within. Even as parts of its flesh sloughed away, the giant bird obsessed over pecking the crawler again and again.
Stifling his nausea, Yohan instinctively searched for Hyunmook. He had braced himself to see so monstrous form—but Hyunmook alone still bore a human shape, his head bowed low.
Bumram rain stread from his hair down his pale cheeks, looking almost like ordinary rainfall. Yet sothing dark seeped from his features, dripping steadily into the ground. Even the mad, contaminated beings shied away from that darkness....
Snapping from his trance, Yohan saw Hoyoung, utterly broken, mumbling as he clutched Yohan’s legs to keep him from going closer. But Yohan could not remain still.
“I... I have to purify him.”
He had to purify, first of all. With trembling hands he raised his weapon. Dazzling light spilled from its core.
And that was all.
The light rely purified the nearby Bumram and filth, nothing more. Here, Yohan was nothing but a faint glow. Tears fell from his eyes like light itself dripping away. He wept and wept, then forced himself to steady.
‘Pull yourself together, Yang Yohan! This isn’t the ti to cry!’
He slapped his own cheek hard, clenched his teeth, and focused. At once, a luminous spread like an umbrella unfurled. Breathing deep, he cast the radiant umbrella over Hoyoung and said:
“Give a buff, Hoyoung.”
Bathed in the light raining over him, Hoyoung at last lifted his head, dazed, and with trembling hands cast his buff on Yohan. Instantly, the light of purification swelled within him, overflowing. Yohan conjured one more umbrella of light and raised it above his own head. Then, step by faltering step, he crossed the rain of Bumram.
Wherever the black droplets struck, they beca clear water as they passed through the umbrella’s glow. Stumbling through the dark, hellish reed field, Yohan trudged on. Dead birds battered his shoulders and back. His eyes blurred with tears and rain, but he let them blur on purpose—otherwise he could not endure the grotesque scene around him.
And so, at last, Yohan reached where Hyunmook stood. He spread the umbrella over him and stretched out a trembling hand.
“Hy—Hyunmook-hyung...”
Terrified and shivering, Yohan threw his arms around Hyunmook from behind and gasped. Once so warm, Hyunmook now felt like cold stone, devoid of breath or life, like a hollow shadow wearing a human form. Yohan almost longed for the days of his madness—it was less frightening than this.
Co back, co back. Please, return to how you were. Return without fear, please...! Yohan sobbed, clinging tight to the dreadful, chilling figure, eyes shut as he poured out all his purification.
Sothing that looked like Hyunmook stirred, tapping lightly at the hands clasping its waist.
Yohan-ah.
Again, a faint tap. A strength so ager it couldn’t crush an ant. Yohan pressed his forehead to Hyunmook’s back, trembling like a leaf, and loosened his grip. Cold fingers pried his own open one by one.
Yohan-ah....
It wasn’t a human voice—sothing like an eerie lody—but Yohan understood. Unable to face the hollow, empty face, he wept and followed its lead. He raised his weapon. Around the Eternal Stone, an umbrella of light shimred, barely wide enough for the two of them.
Bring it forth.
Lifting his head, trembling, Yohan raised the weapon high. The Eternal Stone glowed brighter.
Spread it as wide as you can....
Like a parasol beneath the sun, a springti pavilion, a great umbrella in a drizzle, a snow globe’s round glass, a canopy above a Buddha, a veil in a cozy bedroom, a curtain over a window in the afternoon. Or like you—
Sothing radiant and beloved.
Even in this state, it was tender and kind. Sobbing, Yohan thought of sothing radiant and beloved. What ca first to mind was not his life on Earth. It was the peaceful ho in the Japanese sector, where he ate, talked, tended a garden, decorated a ho. That short life that already felt so long ago.
When he had pulled Hyunmook from madness, when he grilled pork belly for Seungryong, when he made a ga console for Hoyoung. They had sat around the fire, talked, laughed, and felt at peace. Yohan wished desperately.
No more wandering endlessly through this desolate, lonely reed sea. No more fleeing the Bumram. He longed for comfort, safety. But above all else, in this mont, Yang Yohan yearned—
“For these people... not to suffer anymore!”
He cried aloud through tears. The light of the Eternal Stone gathered tighter, not fading but condensing into sothing more brilliant and fierce. He looked up at the unchanging stone hanging from his spear. An indestructible core, forged of unbroken will even in this hell.
And in that instant, Yohan understood.
Ah, this Eternal Stone... it feels so familiar. Maybe...
And as realization struck, the condensed light exploded outward.
Countless streams of radiance shot skyward, then arced gently downward like hundreds of teors, a ceaseless cascade of shining stars. The flood of light ford a vast do, enclosing every inch where the Bumram’s rain had fallen. As before, when he had saved Hyunmook, Yohan poured forth an imnse torrent of light, and a halo shone above his head.
Now, what fell here was no longer black corruption, but clear raindrops imbued with light. Struck by that rain, things that had twisted, crawled, and writhed hardened and quieted. The smallest birds were the first to regain their true forms, reclaiming colorful plumage and soft feathers, chirping as they fluttered. So flew beyond the do, but most remained, basking in the warm light and pure rain.
Next, beneath the small umbrella Yohan had cast over him, Hoyoung raised his head. He looked up at the sky and smiled brightly. Then he leapt into the do, letting the rain fall over him. A lump of Bumram he stepped on burst with a soft pop, dissolving into a harmless puddle.
And then Seo Yakrin returned. Black sludge and mottled feathers sloughed away. From his distorted face, anger and hatred dripped like lting ice under the sun and vanished. To one who had been tornted by endless fury and despair, peace finally ca.
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