Into the Agony

Kim Saebyeok and Ma Jian wound up back in the mart staff break room once again.

"At this rate… I don't think we'll ever be able to do our upgrades anywhere else."

"Haha… I suppose so," Jian replied with a faint, wry smile.

"Honestly, you two look like you suffer way more in this room than you ever do out on the battlefield," Heejin chimed in, giggling from the side.

"Oppa, I'll go first today. It looks like yours is going to take a long time again anyway."

When Jian offered with an easy smile, Saebyeok scratched the back of his head, looking distinctly contrite.

You really don't need to feel sorry…

Watching his troubled grimace, Jian couldn't help thinking that Saebyeok always carried far too much guilt on his shoulders. She lowered her gaze to the small glass phial resting in her palm.

The Heart Extract of the Red Moon Beast. A rare elixir purchased for an eye-watering four hundred thousand CP. Swirling inside the glass was an arresting crimson fluid that mirrored the hue of her own eyes—a deep, alluring scarlet that seemed to pull her gaze inward.

Haa… Is it going to hurt again? If it's only about as bad as when I learned the Iron Fist Saintess technique, I can handle it…

She prayed silently that it wouldn't be anywhere near as agonizing as receiving her combat imprint.

Pop!

"Oh?"

Jian pulled the stopper, crafted from the same translucent material as the vial, and blinked in surprise. A crisp, refreshing aroma wafted up—reminiscent of deep forest air and fresh pine. She had braced herself for the thick, metallic stench of clotted blood, so the unexpected fragrance drew an involuntary murmur of admiration. Along with it came a flicker of fragile hope that perhaps, this time, the process wouldn't be painful at all.

Gulp. Gulp.

Enjoying the cool, smooth glide of the liquid down her throat, she found herself briefly wondering whether something so crisp and revitalizing could truly be the extract of a beast's heart.

Thump!! Thump—!!!

Her heart suddenly convulsed.

Sharp, vicious spikes of agony battered the inside of her chest, as if an invisible hand clad in a gauntlet of jagged thorns had plunged through her ribs to roughly squeeze and knead her vitals. Cruel, unrelenting pain pierced her from every conceivable angle. It was entirely distinct from the burning brand of her combat imprint—a suffocating, lethal spasm that paralyzed her lungs and made her feel as though she were dying on the spot. Slowly, brutally, the phantom grip tightened, twisting her heart like a rag.

"Kehhk—!"

Jian clutched her chest with both hands, managing only a ragged, dying gasp. Through the blurring haze of her vision, she caught sight of Saebyeok's face contorting in sheer horror, while Heejin stared back with wide, terrified eyes, looking as though the agony were tearing through her own flesh.

"Aaaaaaaaghhhhhh—!"

A piercing, soul-shredding shriek tore from Jian's throat against her will.

Collapsing to her knees, she curled into a tight, pitiful ball on the floor, holding her chest so hard her knuckles turned white. The torment was so absolute she couldn't even writhe.

When the seemingly eternal spasm finally began to ebb by minuscule degrees, the lingering numbness convinced her that this was the end—that she was dying right here on the break room tiles.

I was so glad I met Oppa… and I'm glad I met Heejin, too… I wanted to spend so much more time flirting and cuddling with Oppa… Ah… but even so, I was happy… Ah…

Her vision bleached to blinding white. Within that fleeting, dreamlike void, a vision materialized before her eyes: majestic beasts resembling wolves, sporting lustrous white coats and striking ruby eyes. She saw them roaming freely through a boundless forest of towering trees, running in vibrant packs, living out their days in untamed, tranquil harmony.

Then, the scene violently twisted.

Tears burst uncontrollably from Jian's eyes as a suffocating, unbearable tide of sorrow slammed into her chest.

Grief. Pure, crushing, bottomless grief.

A nebulous entity made of writhing black smoke appeared, callously snapping the legs of the innocent young cubs. A right foreleg. A left hindleg. Fragile limbs splintered and twisted into ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠grotesque, unnatural angles. The adult beasts wailed in unendurable torment, frantic to protect their young, yet they were utterly immobilized—pinned to the earth by tendrils of murky dark vapor.

Then, the smoky abomination slowly, deliberately drew the heart out of a tiny cub's chest. And as if crushing an insignificant insect beneath a thumb, it casually squashed the still-fluttering organ to pulp.

Jian knelt in the dark, weeping endlessly. The tears wouldn't stop, yet her throat seized up completely, refusing to produce a sound. She ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠wanted to scream until her vocal cords tore, but she was powerless to do anything at all.

With their crimson eyes burning with every shred of hatred and fury their souls could muster, the parent beasts poured their final curses upon the shadowy specter. Moments later, their hearts were ripped from their chests as well.

Before her lay mountains of white-furred corpses, discarded like piles of garbage. Then, the shadowy entity slowly turned and glided toward Jian. Without a word, it reached into her chest and pulled out her beating heart.

"Aaaaaack! Aaargh!! Aaaaaaaaghh—!"

Her body ceased to obey rational thought. She simply thrashed in pure, primal terror, desperately clawing at the air, pleading to be spared—begging for the nightmare to stop.

"Jian-ah!!!"

Ah… warmth… Someone warm is holding me…

The sudden heat momentarily anchored her drifting senses, but an irrational dread immediately ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠surged in its wake.

I'm scared. I'm so scared. Please, make it stop. I'm terrified…

Her entire frame shuddered violently, teeth chattering out of control. Yet the harder she trembled, the more fiercely the arms around her tightened. It was a firm, solid embrace, overflowing with desperate care, and within that protective pressure, her racing pulse gradually found its rhythm again.

Ah… Saebyeok Oppa…

With that final thought, her consciousness gently slipped away into darkness.

Sensory reality rushed back in an instant.

A blanket? Wait—! Ah!

Jian bolted upright like a released coil.

"Hah! Hah! Hah…!"

Saebyeok and Heejin, who had been speaking in hushed murmurs nearby, immediately rushed over.

"Are you okay?!"

"Unni… are you alright?"

Tears continued to spill steadily down Jian's cheeks, dripping onto the fabric of the blanket.

"Huh… Why am I…?"

Saebyeok and Heejin exchanged worried, silent glances.

"Wait… I'm fine now, really…"

Yet despite her words, the tears refused to abate, pouring out the residual sorrow imprinted upon the beast's essence.

After crying her heart out, Jian slowly regained her composure and drank a cup of cold water in a daze. Feeling that they were burning precious time—and desperate to prove to Saebyeok that she was truly unhurt—she proceeded with the rest of her stat and skill allocations in one rapid sequence. Fortunately, no further horrors awaited her this time.

"Phew…"

"Is it done?" Saebyeok asked gently.

"Yes…"

"No complications?"

"None…"

Taking a steadying breath, Jian summoned her updated status window, which had just absorbed nearly two million CP worth of enhancements.

Her level had not increased, but the sheer cohesion and destructive potential packed into her profile were formidable enough that she felt confident she wouldn't easily lose to anything out there. Only then did a genuine smile return to her face.

"Looks like you're pleased with the result?" Saebyeok asked.

"Yes…"

Remembering how she had just broken down and wailed like a helpless toddler in his arms, Jian felt heat rush up her neck, turning her face bright crimson.

Watching Jian blush profusely, Saebyeok was occupied with entirely different thoughts.

Ouch… If we sparred right now, I'd probably get completely wrecked.

A fierce, competitive hunger flared in his chest; he needed to grow stronger, immediately.

"Jian-ah… if anything happens while I'm out cold, use your own judgment to handle it."

"Pardon?"

"I'm counting on you."

"…Understood."

With solemn focus, Saebyeok stripped off his clothing, folded it neatly to the side, and sat cross-legged upon the bare tiles. Feeling the frigid, uncompromising stone through his skin, he prayed with every fiber of his being.

Please, just let it hurt less this time… I'm begging you!

Taking a deep breath, he summoned the Chaos-Embracing Womb of the Infinite.

It defied simple description—a sphere of pure, blinding radiance that cast soft golden light across the dim room, radiating an overwhelming, primordial presence. As Saebyeok cradled the warm orb in both hands, a translucent system prompt flared before his eyes.

YES!!

The instant he roared the command in his mind, Saebyeok's head snapped back. Tens of thousands of golden filaments erupted violently from the orb, whipping through the air like living silk and cocooning his body layer upon layer, wrapping him tight as an ancient mummy.

Fsshhhh—whirrr!

The threads spun furiously, expanding outwards until they formed a massive, luminous chrysalis.

Heejin muttered under her breath, grumbling that it would have been far simpler if the orb had just grown massive and swallowed him whole, but Jian couldn't share her levity. She watched the golden shell with clenched fists and breathless tension.

Moments later, the giant sphere lifted off the tiles, levitating quietly as it began to spin on its own axis.

Far removed from the serene spectacle witnessed from the outside, Saebyeok was being torn apart by unspeakable, maddening agony.

Flames raced inward from the tips of his toes and fingers, tearing toward his heart like liquid napalm. It wasn't a mere hallucination—his flesh was genuinely burning from the inside out. He desperately tried to thrash, to kick, to scream, but the cocoon held him utterly paralyzed. He had no choice but to sit there and burn.

Incineration, followed by rapid, agonizing cellular reconstruction. Over and over, in an unbroken loop.

It felt precisely as though someone had tied him to a rope and dipped him into a vat of molten lava like a human teabag—plunged into the magma, yanked ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠out to mend, and dropped right back in. In the depths of that torment, Saebyeok became convinced that if hell truly existed, it could feel no worse than this. Normally, when suffering reached such a catastrophic peak, the brain granted the mercy of unconsciousness. But here, his awareness only grew sharper, unnervingly lucid, until he could map out the exact millimeter of every nerve fiber as it turned to ash.

The smell of his own cooking marrow; the sizzle of raw nerves being cauterized; the sensation of bones scorched so brittle that the gentlest tap would reduce them to dust.

Again, and again.

Over, and over.

Endlessly repeated.

At several points amidst the searing nightmare, the thought crossed his mind that death would be a far kinder alternative. Yet reality dictated that he had already drifted far too deep into the ritual to turn back.

Then, the moment the scorching inferno finally relented, the pendulum swung to the opposite extreme.

A killing, absolute frost seized him.

Needles of lacerating sub-zero cold stabbed through his body. His flesh hardened into solid ice until it felt on the verge of shattering into a million frozen shards. It was a vicious, grinding torment—as if mammoth ice picks were being hammered deep into his bone marrow and internal organs, piercing through again and again without pause.

Burned to cinders, then frozen to brittleness. Back and forth, the cycles raged without end.

Saebyeok lost all comprehension of time. In the brief, breathless lulls between the cycles of fire and ice, fleeting, detached musings drifted through the frayed edges of his mind. How much agony does molten iron feel when it gets quenched in cold water? Is this what the cosmos does, endlessly expanding in fire and collapsing in absolute cold?

Eventually, he reached a state of profound nothingness. All sensation vanished. He was falling, endlessly descending through a bottomless, empty void.

By the time he forgot that he was even falling, Saebyeok noticed a faint presence flickering before him: a tiny flame, burning with an impossibly deep shade of pitch black.

Huh? A flame? What is that? Weird… Why am I suddenly perceiving something again? Black fire? How can I even see this?

Wait… it talks?!