Chapter 6

Episode 6

12:00 A.M. – Midnight.

The sword lodged in the middle of the roof gave off a slight tremor.

*Ta-Dum*

An unfamiliar noise rang out, beginning with a weak tap and ending with a thunderous thump. The strange sound was like an echo that resonated from the ground up. The sword’s vibration intensified as if it had been struck with a large hammer.

Se-young, who was in a deep sleep, tossed and turned restlessly.

The faint echo, which had a bright, piercing tone, became clearer and louder.

*Dum. Dum. Dum. Dum.*

It was the sound of armies clashing on the battlefield. It wasn’t just the sound of drums in Se-young’s ears. There were deafening war cries from thousands of soldiers and ringing horn blasts to signal troops to advance. The sky was flooded with rivers of fire, gray ash swirled around like snow, and the earth was scorched black, with no plant life to be seen.

It was a strange place with no sense of direction, no moon, and no shadows. Dead things were piled up everywhere. They were all charred black with no indication of their original form.

Suddenly, the landscape was pushed out of focus. The field of vision slammed forward with a nauseating feeling, similar to looking out of the window of a high-speed train. The view passed over countless rivers of blood and mountains of bodies lying upon the blackened earth before suddenly coming to a stop.

It was like being in a sea of fire. The earth itself burned with a hot blaze. Flames shot up from the fractured ground, and lava erupted in all directions, surging out like solar flares. The hellish inferno gave the illusion of a dozen dragons breaking through the earth with their fiery breath.

In the midst of the hellish conflagration was a sword, stuck upside down into the ground, where the lava glowed redder than usual and the hard ground was even more worn out. The fire that burned around the sword carried a black tint.

Only the basic outline of the sword was visible through the dense flames, and even then, the image flickered so much that it seemed to melt into a molten form, like a lump of metal getting its first taste of heat from a kiln.

Se-young’s sleeping complexion turned pale and sweaty. A light shone through the cracks in his room. At first, the light was dim, like a faint candle glow, but after a while, the luminance increased to that of a sunset. Then, it turned into an intensely hot reddish light that exploded through the gaps in the door and permeated through the room. The light was harsh and bright as if a high-powered laser had been shot through the cracks of the door.

“… Huh?”

Se-young woke up with a start, forcing his eyes wide open.

“….a dream”

An unchanging fact about dreams is that no matter how realistic or eventful, the moment you open your eyes, you immediately realize that it was a dream. And, as if to prove that it was nothing but a fantasy, you usually forget what the dream was even about within a couple of minutes.

However, before wiping away his clammy sweat, or washing away his memories of the strange nightmare, Se-young opened his eyes.

“……!”

He was so shocked that he couldn’t even speak.

An emanating red light was seeping into his room from under the door.

Se-young mustered up the courage to walk to the door and turn the doorknob.

*Creeeaaak*

The light, which filled Se-young’s dark eyes with shades of red and yellow, was coming through the front door and the window, whose glass pane was blocked by a moving box. Both the glass on the front door and the window were frosted, blocking his view of the outside world.

But Se-young knew.

The flickering outline of the light could never come from an artificial source.

Se-young, while staring at the glass on the front door and window, swallowed down his tension and fear. It was unclear whether the roaring sound of fire in his ears was real or a hallucination. After all, his last vivid memory was the burning world from his dream. Even as he wondered at the absurdity of the situation, his entire body was covered from head to toe in goosebumps.

You fucking idiot, Turn the lock, Tak Se-young!

Se-young swore at himself as he watched his hand unlock the door. His mind automatically wandered to his memory of the inferno-lodged sword from his dreams.

Maybe it wasn’t a dream after all… 

Even though you know it doesn’t make sense, you’re still guessing stuff like that? Don’t get your hopes up. 

There’s a sword in the roof, and I don’t know where it came from. 

There’s a light coming from the blade, and it’s definitely some sort of unknown fire. 

*Click!*

Se-young, who had just finished releasing the last lock, pressed his entire weight against the door and shoved it open with all his strength.