To reach his optimal condition, Yohan rested. For two whole days he ate the nourishing dishes Yoon Seungryong carefully prepared and offered, and he slept deeply. When he woke, he was fully ready. They moved toward the center of the city, the location Seo Yakrin had spotted and reported from high above. Taking several deep breaths, Yohan stretched out his hand.
“Hoyoung, give a buff.”
Joo Hoyoung, showing rare signs of tension, grasped Yohan’s hand. As the power flowed into him, Yohan’s body swelled with frightening force. Hoo... After one more deep breath, he released the trembling energy that looked ready to burst from him at any mont.
A blinding flash exploded. As always when he released imnse power, a halo ford above his head. From it, waves of light spread outward. A vast, rounded sphere of light slowly expanded to cover the city.
But it wasn’t quite enough to cover everything. Even straining with all his might, Yohan’s field barely enveloped a little more than half the zone.
Under the sweeping influence of the purification field, the city slowly grew clean. Yohan prayed desperately for so phenonon to occur. The air turned fresh, and faint chirps of birds rang out. Buildings, once stained black, shone again as if their exteriors had been freshly washed.
That was all.
It was nothing more than thoroughly cleaning one district. Drained and about to collapse, Yohan was caught by Lee Hyunmook. Drenched in sweat, panting, Yohan’s face crumpled with despair, and he began to sob.
“I... I must have been wrong.”
“Yohan...”
Joo Hoyoung, distressed, held his hand tightly. The rest of the group wore the sa heavy expressions. Yoon Seungryong tried to cheerfully say that living in a clean place wasn’t so bad, but Yohan couldn’t be comforted. Just as he wiped his tears on his sleeve, Lee Hyunmook, who had been silently gazing up at the sphere of light, spoke.
“Maybe the direction is wrong.”
“...What?”
Sniffling, Yohan raised his head. Hyunmook continued slowly.
“Up until now, the goal was to purify us, so you focused above ground. But this ti... it has to be below ground. Purifying the air won’t change anything.”
“Underground...”
It was as if a bright bulb flickered on in his mind. Yohan’s eyes trembled. Hyunmook was right. His ability had been modeled after an umbrella, so he had always extended it above ground like a canopy. But if the goal was to cleanse the city itself, it had to be underground.
“Maybe... after you’ve recovered a little...”
“No, now...! I’ll try it right now.”
Interrupting Hyunmook, Yohan shouted. Never in his life had his mind been this clear, this focused. Before the words were even fully out, he seized the light that blanketed the city. His eyes shone, galaxies of light flickering within them. Slowly, the massive do flipped over.
“Whoa...”
Seo Yakrin exclaid in awe, staring at the sky. The gentle veil of light sank into the ground. As if day had turned to night, the sky darkened once more. When half of the do had inverted—
Sothing malicious turned its gaze upon them.
“...!”
Yohan shuddered violently as he flipped the field. Cold chills ran down his spine, a repulsive sensation beyond words clawing at him. The Abyss was watching. The earth trembled as it realized what he had done. Everyone felt that vicious stare.
But Yohan felt sothing closer to exhilaration than fear. Half leaning on Hyunmook, he cried out, elated,
“This is it, isn’t it? This is right! This is how... we get out!”
Light burst from Yohan’s eyes. As always when facing the Abyss or Bumram, he was filled with new will and courage. None of the others tried to stop him. Instinct told them this was the answer. Even as the tremors worsened, Yohan pushed the sphere of light deeper.
“Damn!”
Lee Chanha hastily raised a shield as a building collapsed. Massive concrete chunks thundered down, but the barrier held firm. The sky blackened with clouds. Since Yohan had already purified the city, no monsters remained within—so the Abyss summoned flying beasts from elsewhere.
“Not a chance!”
Seo Yakrin roared. Golden energy erupted from her like a predator, tearing apart the descending creatures. Blood rained as their bodies burst. Those that landed were cut down by Yoon Seungryong. Huge monsters were scorched into ash by black lightning. Joo Hoyoung clutched Yohan’s hand, pouring his strength into him. They all fought with everything they had.
When more than half the field had °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° inverted, the quakes intensified. Unable to stay on his feet, Yohan collapsed to the ground, forcing himself to concentrate.
‘Please, please, please...’
The city shook violently as fissures split the ground. From deep below, he sensed the Abyss hastily gathering Bumram, bubbling upward like sewage from a drain. Clenching his teeth, he begged for just a little more ti.
But the rising flood was faster. Even as despair gnawed at him, he did not give up. Then—he heard the sound of waves. Another disaster? Lifting his sweat- and tear-soaked face, his eyes widened.
“That’s...”
A radiant tide of light surged toward them. It was the wave of Eternal Stones, awakened in brilliant colors by Yohan’s first purification.
Sothing that had never once happened in the Abyss. Monsters, and the companions slaughtering them, all froze. Then the flood of light thundered down—not upon the city, but into the cracks in the earth.
“Ah...!”
Yohan gasped. He felt the Eternal Stones flowing into the underground, surrounding the city’s foundation. Where only things unaffected by Bumram could press in, the ground groaned. He sensed the city lifting as the Eternal Stones forced their way in.
The Bumram, arriving a beat too late, was blocked. The Abyss’s ravenous hunger, worn thin by centuries of devouring, now found itself unable to erode the Eternal. It was a true counter-flood.
When the inverted field completely engulfed the underground, an unexpected effect struck. The Eternal Stones resonated with Yohan’s light. Just as the one Hyunmook had given him amplified his power, the stones beneath the city multiplied his strength to unprecedented levels. The light ballooned outward, swallowing the city, then spilled upward into the sky.
A radiant aurora surged from ground to heavens. Above it, light condensed into an artificial orb. Watching it, Hyunmook whispered unconsciously,
“...The sun.”
It was a sun born of countless wills and cries to survive. Blinding, yet never hurting the eyes. Only warm, gentle light. The maddened monsters, consud by fury, one by one regained their true forms.
From the void ca a formless scream. The Abyss, desperate to hold on to what it had swallowed, was being torn apart. Malice peeled away, unable to withstand the radiance. As the light grew too intense, Yohan shut his eyes, and the world flipped. The dark sky and foul air twisted, distorted, and collapsed inward—shrinking, folding....
Unlike the endless fall when he had first dropped into the Abyss, Yohan now felt himself rising, weightless. He squeezed his eyes shut. The mont, stretching like eternity or like an instant, passed. His ears popped, and suddenly the world opened wide, like bursting out of an endless tunnel.
Gasping, Yohan trembled, unable to open his eyes, only shaking violently. Soone stumbled forward and dropped to the ground.
“Outside... we’re outside...”
At those words, Yohan finally dared to open his eyes. Wet pupils reflected the blue sky. Blink, blink. Even when he closed and opened them again, it did not vanish. Unlike the warped, sickly twilight of the Abyss, here shone the sun and drifting white clouds. From afar ca the faint thrum of helicopters.
“I... we... we’re out? Really outside?”
Stamring, Yohan asked. But no one answered. They all just stared wide-eyed, blank with disbelief. The clean air, the cool breeze, the burning sun—it was all too real.
Turning his head, Yohan looked at the man holding him. Under the sunlight, Lee Hyunmook’s hair glowed like golden silk. His eyes, once faintly bloodshot red, were now a clear, warm brown. Hyunmook, who had been gazing up at the sky, turned to him.
“Yohan,” he called, voice heavy and trembling. Breathing raggedly, he pulled Yohan into his arms. Pressing his cheek against Yohan’s until their heated breaths mingled, he hugged him so tightly Yohan could hardly breathe. For the first ti, Hyunmook’s composure shattered, his body shaking.
“I’m glad... I’m glad you never gave up, that you made believe that... Thank you.”
At his words, Yohan’s face crumpled. Clutching his lover tightly, he wept loudly—like soone reborn into the world.
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