CH 153

It had been three days since I came here. The time I spent in Elohim’s house was very peaceful that it was overshadowed by what I was worried about.

However, Ha Tae-heon didn’t let go of his heart and didn’t relax the vigilance around him. At night, he came to my room and fell asleep with me in his arms. That seemed reassuring.

Sleeping in the same bed with him was a bit accustomed to me now, but I couldn’t help feeling uncomfortable in every corner of my heart. Ha Tae-heon might be feeling it already. That I would stay here. He said he would trust me, but his instinctive sense would be another matter.

I sighed in frustration and closed the book I was reading. While Ha Tae-heon went down to the basement to exercise, I was just stopping by the study on the second floor. Although it was very large and spacious for a study, it was close to a library as it was full of huge bookshelves.

The book I just closed was about a variety of plants growing all over the world. What do you call this again. Plant book?

I brought out my thoughts about Ha Tae-heon to take a break, but it wasn’t very helpful because it wasn’t fun. (하태헌에 관한 생각을 잠시라도 쉬려고 꺼내 든 건데 어마어마하게 재미없어서 큰 도움은 되지 못했다)

‘Should I… just follow Ha Tae-heon and return to Korea?’

Although it was difficult to meet the Prophet, the reality didn’t change. After the seventh day, which Elohim had said, I wasn’t sure if I could get useful information.

It was certainly surprising that he knew what was going on in ‘Abyss’, but that alone couldn’t make me believe that he knew everything else.

“Didn’t you say that you would be by my side no matter what?”

What Ha Tae-heon said to me passed through my ears. If I knew this would happen, I would have been a little more cautious. I said over and over again that I wouldn’t leave, but I didn’t expect things to go wrong like this.

This situation of having to weigh Elohim’s proposal and Ha Tae-heon’s trust was just difficult.

Eventually, I got up from my seat with a book. I should stop thinking about it and look for something else to read.

I put the book I had taken out and looked at the other bookshelves. I had so little experience in reading books in my life that I had no idea what kind of fun it would be.

‘Is there anything like Abyss?’

What was the genre. Fantasy novels? There were so many books, there might be one or two books.

It was then when I was looking through the names of books as I crossed the centre of the endlessly wide study. Among the old papers and books piled on the floor, I found the only book with no title written on it.

At a glance, it was an unusual book. I removed the old papers all around it with my hands and picked up the book. The sunlight coming through the window clouded the dust.

“What is it?”

No matter how many times I looked, the title was nowhere to be seen. The hardcover was all dark red as if it had been stained with blood.

Even though I had no idea what the book was, I had a strange urge to open it. After thinking for a while, I opened the cover to take a quick look.

「57」

It was the number written in the centre of the first page. 57? I don’t think it was the 57th volume of a full-length novel. If this book wasn’t fun, there wouldn’t be anything to waste time other than going down to the basement and exercising with Ha Tae-heon.

With a frown on my forehead, I flipped the page and opened it around the middle. The black letters written on the pure white paper caught my eye.

「It’s a desperate situation. As the number of those wearing black masks increased, the place we stood on became narrower. I blinked my eyes slowly as I slashed my opponent. You have to endure it. Somehow.」

Those who wear black masks. I narrowed my brows to something not unfamiliar content. I remembered what happened when I was kidnapped.

「Please, please. I prayed earnestly inwardly and swung the sword hard. Wielding Lilith’s sword through the crowd of enemies…」

“Uh, ugh…!?”

The moment I read the text as if possessed, a strange sensation arose as if my body was floating and my eyes were strongly twisted. Surprised, I tried to take my hand off the book, but I couldn’t get it off as easily as if it had stuck to my skin.

“Hu… gasp…”

My blurry vision quickly turned to darkness. The thick darkness without a single light passed for a short while and then a bright red flame lit up.

At the same time, the smell of blood was felt on the tip of my nose.

“What is this…”

The huge study that had just been there had disappeared, and those wearing black masks were running like a herd of cows. Flames soared across the collapsed and broken buildings with dozens of corpses rolled across the ground.

Screams and blood spurt through the cloudy smoke. In the sudden situation, my heart was beating rapidly and I was sweating profusely.

…could it be that the illusion experienced in C12 Area had begun again?

‘No, it’s not.’

Similar, but… different. I knew instinctively. Now that this was the power of something different from then.

I exhaled slowly and looked straight ahead. The sharp, shining blade cut through those who wore black masks and revealed themselves.

The owner of the sword was Cheon Sa-yeon.

「I could see the back of Ha Tae-heon wielding Lilith through the crowd of enemies.」

It was strange. Cheon Sa-yeon didn’t move his lips at all, but his voice came alive.

When I turned my head to the place where Cheon Sa-yeon was looking, I really saw Ha Tae-heon. He was using Lilith’s sword, which Cheon Sa-yeon would normally have, and he was also wearing the SS-class coat I had saved.

Ha Tae-heon’s face, as he stepped on the corpse that was being cut off and continued to move forward, seemed to have all his emotions cut off. The black eyes that conveyed warmth when they looked at me had disappeared without a trace of kindness.

「What should I do? Is there any way to get out of here?」

Cheon Sa-yeon bit his lip with an anxious look. His appearance was so unfamiliar. Why was Cheon Sa-yeon who always saw through everything and acted leisurely…

「It’s my mistake.」

Cheon Sa-yeon took a rough breath, wiping the blood from his white cheeks.

「I made another mistake again.」

The voice I heard was unstable as if it were about to collapse at any moment. An indescribable hot feeling surged.

“Cheon Sa-yeon!”

I hurriedly ran to Cheon Sa-yeon and stretched out my arm. But my hand couldn’t hold Cheon Sa-yeon. It was then that I realized that my body was transparent and blurry as if it were about to scatter at any moment.

“How come…”

As I looked down at my hands in embarrassment, a mean mockery was heard through the screams.

「Are you tired already? Cheon Sa-yeon.」

It was Samael in a pure white mask who came out of the flames that seemed to devour everything.

Unlike Cheon Sa-yeon and Ha Tae-heon, who were covered in blood and dust from the fight against the constant battles with enemies, his suit was very clean.

「It’s very awful. Poor thing.」

When Samael raised his gloved hand, those frantic rushing crowd stopped all action. Cheon Sa-yeon and Ha Tae-heon looked at Samael, with dozens, perhaps hundreds, of those who were being controlled in all directions.

「I would like to give you a present.」

A doll with high heels appeared behind Samael’s back. Seeing the face of the person being dragged while being held by the doll, I screamed.

“Team Leader Park Geon-ho!”

It was Park Geon-ho, who was seriously injured as if he was going to die at any moment. When the doll roughly grabbed his hair and made him lift his head, he coughed and poured out dark red blood. The tip of Cheon Sa-yeon’s sword, who discovered Park Geon-ho, shook for a moment.

「That’s a funny expression. Yeah. It’s very fun.」

「……」

「You might be curious, so I let you know. The dog that was with him died. He blew himself up and saved this friend.」

Park Geon-ho opened his eyes with difficulty as he talked as if talking about the weather. His eyes, glaring at Samael, were filled with deep murderous intent and misery that nothing could wash away. Samael handed the long sword to the black-masked man standing next to him. The blue-forged blade touched Park Geon-ho’s neck.

「It’s a friendship that really brings tears to my eyes. Don’t you think so?」

Samael, who was patting the blade on Park Geon-ho’s neck like a joke, faced the pale, tired Cheon Sa-yeon and shouted brightly.

「Why are you so stiff? Smile, Cheon Sa-yeon! Just like that day!」

“No!”

Without hesitation, the blade cut through Park Geon-ho’s neck. The body that lost its head fell down and rolled on the ground. Beeeep, at the same time as the beep sound, my legs lost strength.

“Ah, huu… gasp…”

I couldn’t breathe properly. I grabbed my chest and chewed hard my mouth. The spirit that seemed to be extinguished at any moment came back with a sharp taste of iron.

「Haha… hahaha! Haha!」

Samael’s maddening laughter resounded. Gasping in an unbelievable situation, Cheon Sa-yeon’s thought that had been cut off flowed back into my head.

「It wasn’t just the two of them.」

His hand holding the sword trembled.

「I failed again this time.」

His blood-soaked sword lifted upwards. I remembered the fact that it was an S-class sword that slowed down healing, used by Cheon Sa-yeon before getting Lilith.

「Since the two of them are dead, even if we survive here…」

With black eyes that had lost the light, he placed the blade on his wrist.

「It doesn’t mean anything.」

Ha Tae-heon, who knew what Cheon Sa-yeon was going to do, shouted.

「Cheon Sa-yeon!」

A huge amount of blood flowed from the wound on the wrist that had been cut deeply. A hot fire erupted everywhere the blood had passed.

「Stop it, Cheon Sa-yeon!」

Cheon Sa-yeon, who ignored Ha Tae-heon’s desperate cry, raised his energy. I had already experienced this aggressive and unrefined flow of energy once.

The explosion risk stage. With a cold sweat and a blurry body, I tried to somehow catch Cheon Sa-yeon.

“Don’t do it, Cheon Sa-yeon! Cheon Sa-yeon!”

Even if I shouted out loud, Cheon Sa-yeon didn’t look at me. To make matters worse, the body began to be pushed back little by little by an unknown force.

“Ugh, please…!”

I resisted while crawling on the ground, but everything gradually moved away. My eyes were quickly swallowed by the intense light from behind.

“Cheon Sa-yeon!”

Cheon Sa-yeon had an expressionless face and tears were shed from one of his eyes.

Everything was immersed in pure white light last time as Cheon Sa-yeon flew towards Samael under the grey sky.

The dizzying sensation falling from the air swept from head to toe. Gasp, I swallowed my breath and quickly blinked my eyes. A wooden floor could be seen in an increasingly clear field of vision.

“Se-hyun-ah.”

Before I knew it, I was back in the study. I raised my head and looked up blankly at Elohim standing opposite me.

“I’m sorry.”

As I was sweating in a cold sweat, Elohim opened his mouth with pitying eyes.

“I thought I had cleaned them up, but it looks like there was one left.”

In his hand was the red book I had seen. Without further explanation, I realized that what I just experienced was because of that book.

“How… what the, that book?”

When I asked the question while holding down my tight breathing, Elohim pondered for a moment before answering.

“It depends on how the reader perceives it.”

“……”

“It could be just a book with an interesting story, it could be someone’s memory, or it could be a record of the past.”

Someone’s memory. A record of the past.

Don’t tell me…

“The story written in that book.”

I spoke hastily at an ominous thought that had no end in sight.

“How does it end?”

“Are you curious?”

Elohim smiled softly. It wasn’t difficult to understand the meaning behind that smile.

“…if I say I will stay here, will I know?”

“Yeah.”

I slowly moved my gaze to the red book. Numerous thoughts came to mind and collapsed. I closed my eyes, feeling the heat, and then opened them.

SA-YEON!! QAQ

Ah ah ah Seo-hyuk died to protect Geon-ho but Geon-ho still died in front of Sa-yeon… QAQ

My tears…

And yeah, I’m sure it was Elohim’s trick to make Yi-gyeol stay…

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