Chapter 339 - The Reality Of Hell

Finishing off the Reverse Walkers without much trouble, both Sicarius and Yuri were back at the two's sides as they witnessed the awakening of the once stationary giant.

"I think now's the time to ask; does anyone have any like...highly destructive skills?"

Ren asked, looking between the group, though it seemed Sicarius was the first to answer as he fiddled with his cloak. 

"I don't have any blades big enough for that thing, but…"

Sicarius discarded his curved blades that had become dulled with stick grime in his massacring of the fiends, instead retrieving a long, black chain scythe that was tucked behind his obscuring cloak. 

"I doubt that thing has the same rotting ability as the Marquis guy, so I'll lend you a hand."

Cracking both his knuckles and his neck, Jae-Seong smiled with his golden irises that seemed to glow in the somber space. 

"I guess...I'll help too!"

Feeling left out for a moment, Ren added himself into the equation as he retrieved Belus from its sheath. 

"I'll give you supporting fire."

Adding in, Yuri snapped her fingers to manifest her cannons once more as a cold breath left her pink lips. 

Witnessing the colossal, sluggish-seeming fiend raise one of its lengthy arms up, the group split up to avoid the massive crash of the patchwork limb as their assault began. Using the building-sized arm as a path, Sicarius swiftly ascended upon it while spinning his chain scythe rapidly, swinging it around as large, deep cuts scaled the fiend's arm. 

"...!"

In his sprint, Sicarius noticed at the last moment that the blackened flesh on the arm he walked upon began to bubble up; leaping up, he watched as spiky tendrils protruded from the fiend's arm towards him. 

That was close, Sicarius thought. 

In retaliation, he swung the scythe as it diced right through the malicious tendrils. Helping the assassin in this endeavor, Ren yelled out as he jumped up high--using Belus to carve through the last remaining tendrils. 

"You're welcome."

Attempting to reel in any emotion from the assassin, Ren's playful words were completely ignored as he landed beside Sicarius onto the fiend's arm. 

"You're no fun, are you?"

"If you can talk, swing your sword." 

While Ren was distracted trying to make small talk, Sicarius' words were accompanied by the man cutting through a pair of tendrils that extended towards Ren's back. The finesse at which Sicarius handled the weapon that seemed difficult to wield enamored Ren for a moment. 

Shocked by this, the young man chuckled wryly, "...I guess that makes us even." 

I guess he isn't a world renowned assassin for nothing, eh? He thought. 

Nearly causing him to jump, Ren looked up at the source of the explosive sounds resounding through the hellish chamber, witnessing the cannons wielded by the Lucrauvian woman blast away at the colossal fiend as it was too sluggish to properly counter. 

It's way too slow to handle any of this...we might just pull this off, Ren thought. 

Chunks of decrepit flesh that fell like debris were blown off by each hurled cannonball of azure conjuration. 

It felt almost too hopeful; too good to be true--and that pessimistic existence that dwelled in the bottom of his gut rang true as he witnessed it: in the midst of Yuri's barrage against the colossal, she kept her eyes focused on it, and only it--a mistake. 

From behind her, birthing from the walls of black flesh, a pillar made of the sable, living substance propelled with nothing but a large mouth, packed with teeth that seemed too large even for its massive maw. 

Before any of them could properly react, the enigmatic mouth slammed its jaws shut on the girl--bringing her entire upper-half into its maw formed of blackened gums as her legs could still be seen standing against the ground. 

It happened too fast; Ren stared blankly in the direction as it all felt surreal. The action happened instantaneously; there was no hesitation from the worm-like, lengthy creature that bore only a mouth full of enlarged teeth as it ate. 

That's right...right now, we're in the worst of it all. Death...death should be expected, right? He thought. 

"Yuri---!!!"

Jae-Seong yelled out with everything he could, stopping his barrage of blows on the creature's abdomen, but he was too late--he halted in his tracks as horror overlapped his expression; as the creature made of nothing but a mouth pulled away, all that was left was the lower-half of the Lucrauvian woman. 

"Ge-he-he! Ge-he-he!"

Releasing a distorted, high-pitched laughter as it ate, the worm-like creature clamped its jaws repeatedly as a downpour of blood showered to the ground. With tears of anger lining his eyelids, Jae-Seong rushed over in an instant--launching a blow that turned the creature into nothing more than a mist of black. 

Falling to the ground, the chewed-up upper-half of the girl fell near her collapsed bottom half. The sight alone made Ren gag as his legs quivered; Sicarius pulled him away from the sight without any hesitation. 

"Don't look at that. We'll end up like that if we lose our focus."

"That's...cruel."

"That's the truth."

Sicarius corrected the young man's quietly spoken words as they faced the colossus that was at the very least encumbered by the previous attacks. 

"...It's my fault. She…"

"Don't."

The simple word halted Ren in his sentence as Sicarius kept his eyes forward on the colossal being as it attempted to hold itself together. 

"Huh?"

"I know that spiral you're going down; her death isn't on your hands. This is the reality of facing Belmon; death is the most likely outcome, like it or not. She was a warrior; don't sully her death with your own, superficial regret." 

Sicarius' words weren't dull; they were so sharp that they dug right into Ren, but they were enough to pull him out from that sinking darkness of guilt. 

...He's right. That's the kind of world I'm in, isn't it? Death, death, death...there's no end to it, Ren thought. 

Falling to his knees, Jae-Seong's eyes trembled as he saw the state of his companion. Clenching his fists with such anguish in his grip that they began to bleed; reopening the wound on his knuckles as they bled in surplus as well. 

"Yuri...Yuri...no…"

It's my fault. It's my fault. It's because I was selfish...you had to come with me. It's all my fault, he thought. 

The "Land of Snow and Steel" they call it; they aren't wrong, Jae-Seong thought. 

Peering out of the window, the azure skies were long missed as a blanket of sulking clouds stretched across the sky, allowing endless snow to plummet down. 

"Don't you miss it?"

Jae-Seong asked, speaking to the other person present in the decorated room as he continued to peer out to the region clad in abundant frost. 

"Hm?"

Sitting quietly on a comfortable, padded chair, a boy with olive locks looked up from the book he read. 

"You know? T.V, games, the internet...the lights at night, music, all of that. All we've got now is snow, and more snow." 

Jae-Seong reiterated what he meant, this time turning to look at the young man who sat in the lavish room with him. 

"And books." 

Adding in, the olive-haired young man dressed in an illustrious, sable uniform decorated with silver accents spoke while returning his eyes to his book. Despite wearing the uniform, his androgynous, gentle appearance didn't let him stand out as an intimidating figure in the slightest; especially with his amber irises that held no malice. 

"...And books, yeah, but that's not what I'm talking about. I don't think I even read a book after I graduated. I guess you aren't the right person to ask, Yan. You were still a bookworm, even on Earth, weren't you?" 

"I read as much as any person should...that's to say; yes, by the standards of society, I was a "bookworm". You should try it sometime; you know, reading for enjoyment, rather than just to study for warfare…"

Yan spoke softly before he slowly closed his book before setting the oak-colored novel down on the desk made of rich wood beside him, looking at Jae-Seong with his soft, but inquisitive, amber eyes. 

"Huh? Lucrauv values strength above all, so why the hell wouldn't I become as strong as I can? If we underperform, we get axed...probably. Stone-cold bastards don't have any hearts, do they?"

This answer didn't seem to convince Yan, who raised an eyebrow to his friend and colleague's words. 

Leaning forward a bit, Yan rested his chin against his hand. "War doesn't really fit you, Jae-Seong. You're like me; you were an artist—no, you are an artist, still. I wasn't much for modern music, but even I knew of your band…"T-X Cosmos", was it?"

As Yan recalled this, embarrassment tangibly flushed over Jae-Seong's cheeks as he quickly waved his hands for his friend to stop. 

"Don't say that name! Gah, I've got an image to keep up, you know? You know what they call me now? "The Fist of Destruction" badass, right? Well, that's going to disappear if they figure out I was in a boy band!"

Jae-Seong reprimanded his friend as his cheeks were still flushed, speaking with much more passion than usual before Yan broke out into laughter from his reaction. 

Seeing the olive-haired friend of his laugh so genuinely, Jae-Seong sighed before sitting back down and peering out of the window that overlooked the entire city. 

Ki-Re; the city that never rests. Work, work, work…man, I'm glad I wasn't born here, Jae-Seong thought. 

"The Decade Principal."

"Mm?"

Yan looked at the curly-haired man who suddenly spoke such peculiar words. 

Answering his friend's confusion, Jae-Seong continued, "One decade. Once we serve for one decade, Lucrauv will give us the choice to return home or continue living like kings in this tundra."

"I know about that, obviously, but why're you bringing that up now?" 

Yan asked as he looked at the curly-haired friend of his who held a small smile. Placing his hands behind his head, Jae-Seong leaned back in his chair as he looked up at the ceiling of refined stone. 

"...When my Decade Principal is fulfilled, I'm going back home. But...until then, why would I pass up on an opportunity to explore an entirely new world to its fullest, right? You feel the same way, don't you? Reading all of the books here; you want to know all you can about this mystical place." 

"I wouldn't liken my taste in literature to your curiosity in warfare, Jae-Seong." 

Yan's answer sounded a bit off put by him being likened to his friend's inclination for war. 

"Not just that! Everything! I want to try it all; war, magic, mysteries of this world...I can't buy this kind of stuff with all the money in the world back home. That's why I decided--I'll enter Purgatory!" 

Jae-Seong's proclamation caused the room to fall silent between the two as Yan looked at his friend for a moment without a single word spoken, until:

"Huh?!" 

"You told me about it the other day, and it really got me thinking. Purgatory has everything, doesn't it? Magic, mystery, battle--experiences you can't find anywhere else. Just thinking about it makes me so damn pumped!" 

"I'd think twice about it if I were you." 

As Jae-Seong spoke like an enamored child about Purgatory, the amber-eyed friend of his responded with sharp words. 

"Huh? Why? I can handle it."

Sitting backwards in his chair, Jae-Seong looked at Yan with his golden irises, coaxing him for his answer as their eyes met. 

"The problem isn't you not being able to handle it; it's your assistant. Yuri has to follow you wherever you go. Think about it, Jae-Seong, do you want to forcibly drag her with you into a place like Purgatory?"

Yan's words were blown off as Jae-Seong waved his hand, "Yeah, right. If it's her job to follow me around, she better as hell not complain about it! Besides, she can handle herself." 

"....If you say so, Jae-Seong."