Just beside the open door, a limp pair of legs ca into view.
"......"
Slumped as if soone had dozed off leaning against a wall, utterly without strength. The neatly tailored dress trousers looked familiar. The legs were stretched out so far that the cuffs had ridden up, exposing ankles in black socks.
And beside them, half-peeking out, a pair of eyes staring right at her.
"......"
"Ms. Seo."
An expressionless face. Brows resting easy. Eyes sharp at the corners. Irises that looked black save for the gold of the pupils alone. Flawlessly pale skin so translucent it seed to glow, hair neatly swept back.
"Seo."
But those legs were to the left of her vision, and the half-exposed face was to the right.
"Let's play."
Then the voice of her benefactor overlapped with her sibling's.
"Let's play."
"Co out and play."
"Play with ."
Drip, drip--blood fell from a snow-white hand gripping a dead man's head....
"--Ms. Seo!!"
"Haahh,"
The corpse's eyes were hollow, and screams thundered in her ears.
"Save , it hurts...!! Help !!"
"Hkh, hhh, hh."
"Please, I helped you too!! I saved you!!"
"Gkh...."
"You said you'd rescue !!"
Crunch, CRUNCH--!!
In those slender, pale fingers, the benefactor's head was pathetically crushed and mangled.
"AAAGH, AAAAAAAAAAAGH--!!!"
"......"
No, had those fingers been slender and pale?
Had those been a woman's hands? No, no. Looking again, they belonged to a monster. Brutish talons of a bird, far larger than Yeon-woo's skull, grinding him down before gulping--
--swallowing him through its own torn mouth.
"...Ah...."
From above the elevator, a red-and-white face ca into view, hanging upside down like a spider.
The thing that had been watching her through the riotous red flowers blooming around its eyes then slowly reached down, grasping the dangling legs, the ankles. Savage, grotesque avian feet seized Yeon-woo's body and hoisted it upward.
The body in its white shirt and black dress trousers was lifted into the air, a shoe dropping with a thud.
"Urk,"
The mont Seo saw the abdon split wide open, she clamped a hand over her mouth.
The headless corpse, clutched in the raptor's grip, was dragged up through the top of the elevator. Clang, splat--the swaying body struck the walls again and again, scattering blood and flesh at Seo's feet.
Then, when the thing vanished completely above the elevator.
"......"
"......"
Smack, crunch, crack....
"......"
CRUNCH, snap.
"......"
SPLAT! CRACK, crrrunch.
Like rainwater gathered on a roof tile pouring off the edge, thick blood stread down from above the elevator door. Accompanied by grotesque bursting sounds, it stained the elevator walls and floor red in turn.
"Ah, ah...."
Her mind went blank.
"Ah, ugh. Hhk."
It felt as though she were trapped here, dreaming a nightmare.
She reached out with trembling hands and frantically pressed the elevator buttons, but it was useless. Nothing moved. Only the 25th floor still glowed, and the doors that should have closed were held open by talons pressing from both sides.
"Why, why, why... please, just...!"
"Ms. Seo."
"......"
Tok,
The sound of a single drop of blood landing was vivid.
"You seem quite frightened."
"...Stop it."
"Scared, hm? Are you alright?"
"Stop it."
"Are you afraid?"
"I said stop it."
Her legs shook at Yeon-woo's voice, now stripped of even the uncanny valley. She had no strength. What had he said? What was she supposed to do? No, before that--what had she just seen? She couldn't rember.
She wanted to forget everything and lose her mind.
"Ms. Seo."
"Fuck, just stop...."
"Do you require assistance?"
"......"
When her breath hitched--
"Do you require assistance?"
"Do you require assistance?""Do you require assistance?""Do you require assistance?"
"Do you require assistance?""Do you require assistance?"
"Do you require assistance?"
The monster mocked her.
"Eehee, hee, heehee!"
"......"
"Heeheeheeheeheeheehee! Ahahahahaha, hahahahahahahaha!!"
"......"
"Seo, Seo-ya. Seosang is here! I'm here! Yeon-woo is here! Open the door, please open the door. Invite in. I ca looking for you, so open that door and look at my face. My love, my darling, my guest. My Seo! My Seo! My Seo!!"
SCREECH! Crack, grk, creak, creakcreak!!
"MS. SEO!!!"
Sounds like glass being scraped or dry branches snapping erupted from every direction. Snow-white birds perched across the transford rooftop all threw their heads back in unison, emitting piercing cries.
"Hkh,"
The bitter-sweet poppy fragrance choked her breath.
"Haahh, ugh...."
She'd barely retreated to lean against the elevator wall when her legs gave out and she collapsed. But the floor was drenched with blood and flesh. And outside, hell had descended.
Coo-oo, coo, coo-ook--with the birds' cries, a massive body dropped lightly from above the elevator.
"......"
Flutter--
Atop the beautiful face, flowers as murky and red as blood had blood, binding the woman's eyes without a single gap. Blood-stained white hair tumbled disheveled across that face.
Across the enormous body that had shed any semblance of human form, tens of thousands of snow-white wings sprouted at uniformly unnatural angles. That whiteness, blinding to the eyes, was hauntingly sacred and blindly beautiful.
White cloth draped over the woman's upper body as though covering a corpse, and the feet that supported the massive body on the rooftop floor were red and grotesque, as if the skin had been flayed away. Beautiful, yet horrifying.
'A Siren...?'
No.
'A Harpy?'
Either way, the comparison wasn't wrong in form. Whether the creature had prayed to a god and received wings, or was a goddess of divine lineage, the fact that it was a labyrinth with a self didn't change.
"......"
Witch.
That widely known epithet crossed her mind.
The Witch of the Poppies, draped in a snow-white shroud. That was the White Crow's na.
"Sorrow. Sorrow. I grieve."
"......"
"A witch, you say, foolish one. It is you--you barbarians, you hollow creatures who burn even innocent souls. Co, fall into my embrace. Into my arms, and let us dream together."
"...No."
"Co out, Seo. Seosang is here. Your benefactor is in here, too. If you can't trust this voice, who will you trust? You don't have to be afraid anymore. We've greeted the dawn, and before morning cos, we'll turn to ash and vanish."
"No."
"Eternal love is in here. Eternal happiness, ti, a future--all in here. You don't know how soft and plush my embrace is. If you'd just hold once, you'd resent every mont you spent enduring alone."
"Stop...."
"Co, Seo."
With a tenderness like a mother's, she spread both arms wide.
"No more pain."
"......"
"I promise...."
Her vision blurred. No--it went numb.
"......"
"You poor thing. You've been suffering."
Yes. I was suffering.
"Good people always leave your side first."
Always, I alone wander this dreadful Purgatory like a specter. Unable to age, unable to die.
"But you know, don't you?"
"......"
"You know."
"......"
"The good people are already in hell. All of them."
The woman smiled.
"Because they wished to save even hell itself."
"Ah...."
"Isn't that foolish?"
"It's foolish."
"Don't you miss them?"
"I miss them."
Seo took a step forward.
"I miss them."
Splash--she crossed the bloodstained threshold.
"I missed them."
My sibling. My hero. And my benefactor, too.
"Everyone leaves ."
"Truly wicked people, aren't they."
"They save on their own terms, claiming it's the right thing, then vanish without even leaving a grave."
"Lives that gutter out in misery."
"All I wanted was a world where good people could be happy...."
"I'll show it to you."
Crying and smiling at once.
"Are they in there?"
"Of course. We've been waiting for you, Sister."
"And Teacher?"
"Bored from all the waiting."
"And Mr. Yeon-woo?"
Lost in the flower's scent, she asked.
"Yeon-woo, are you there?"
[--Ms. Seo.]
"......"
Ah.
[Do you require assistance?]
"......"
Ah, right.
"...Yes."
I will live.
Gritting her teeth and twisting her body, at the very instant she set her first foot on the outdoor staircase--
A deafening blast erupted behind her.
"--■■■■■■■■■■■!!!!"
"...Hah...."
So this is what you ant by 'control.'
"Haha...!!"
Seo found the monster's anguished scream a little satisfying.
'Serves you right.'
That's what you get for tornting people.
She raced down the outdoor staircase.
***
As he dissolved into the White Crow's blood, Yeon-woo thought.
Black Magic was undeniably formidable. A force that twisted and reorganized the order of the world. Though it couldn't fully digest him--a Velmareth--the grotesque energy flowing thick through the White Crow's blood left his mind reeling regardless.
Yeon-woo decided to postpone a full resurrection. He intended to persist within this massive monster's interior and work his way to the core. He had no idea how far the General Manager's intelligence would drop in that case, though.
'But it should help block more of the bewitching effect on those two.'
"So cruel...."
"......"
"Nobody loves ."
A girl's sobbing reached him from the darkness.
"Why does everyone I love always leave ?"
"That's a topic worth debating."
Yeon-woo replied indifferently.
"Personally, I consider love to be a hormonal amusent for the sake of survival, but you seem to hold its value as sothing subli."
"It is subli. Do you even know the weight of it?"
"I do. But the mont you beco subrged in that weight, the essence fades. Love is rely a form of social exchange. Trust and devotion with a dash of passion mixed in."
Yeon-woo gazed quietly at the girl's essence. He found this tragic theater tireso.
"You were simply gaslit by the word 'love.' By that beautiful, perfect lady of yours."
"......"
"Real relationships are far more trivial. Wondering what to eat today, being considerate of each other's space--that alone is enough. Hurting or trying to possess soone isn't love. It's violence."
After a pause, the girl asked.
"...Can you treat that way? Ask what I want to eat, and be considerate of ?"
"Of course. It's not even difficult."
The pitiable soul, brutally burned by first love, reached out a trembling hand.
"Take us in. Have pity on us, my lady."
"......"
So 'my lady' applied regardless of gender, it seed.
Yeon-woo lightly pressed his lips to the rough, healthy, brown-skinned hand. It was closer to an extension of a contract made by an administrator than to courtship.
"If you want stability on my terms, that is."
"I love you...."
"Another family mber I never asked for."
Yeon-woo smiled bitterly. It felt as though he'd forcibly adopted a daughter, but the current wasn't bad.
***
"......"
Deep within the water, the Drenched One swayed her tail.
"Aah...."
This sinking feeling.
"Trying to do a good deed really puts in a foul mood."
Leaning against the far edge of the pool, the Water Wraith grumbled silently.
"If he doesn't make room for in those lungs after all this, I swear."
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