Chapter 100
Chapter 100
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 100
Chapter Title: Into the World's Abyss: Samcheong-dong Investigation (3)
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5.
Friends, take a look at my invention.
Warning you ahead of time—don't get too attached, thinking they're living creatures or anything.
They're nothing more than biological weapons created to stand against the Abyss.
Cute?
They're only cute right now because they're hatchlings.
What is it, Terry?
Hm? You want to know their name? Right, yeah. Names are important.
Then for now... how about we call them the Dragon Race?
6.
“……Ugh.”
That was when Jeong Ha-kyeong let out a groan. I turned my head with a relieved smile.
“Ha-kyeong.”
“What... is this place...? Ah, my head hurts...”
Was it a headache?
Jeong Ha-kyeong clutched her forehead and let out a long breath, then flexed both hands experimentally.
“You fell down below.”
“Below...? That below from earlier? Don't bullshit me.”
“You'll see if you look here.”
Jeong Ha-kyeong glanced at my knee, then shook her head with a sigh.
“Why do you keep pushing yourself like that? You're such an idiot...”
“You're the one who pushed yourself first, Ha-kyeong.”
At that moment, I couldn't help but stare right through her.
“What? Fuck, why are you staring like that?”
Because.
“Ha-kyeong... for some reason... I don't know how... but you look... younger?”
Something was different.
The refined features below her bobbed hair were the same.
But that unique decadent beauty was gone, replaced by a pure, innocent charm, I suppose.
“You joking around right now? ...Huh? What the fuck?”
Jeong Ha-kyeong, pulling out a cigarette.
Strangely, the moment she took it out, it crumbled into powder.
“Ah, it was a good one, too... Fuck it. What I was asking was... I was definitely hit by that monster earlier──”
Dong... dong... dong... dong...
That's when the bell tolls echoed from somewhere.
A bizarre... eerie yet sacred sound... and I was stunned in that instant.
The skulls we'd smashed earlier.
They seemed to tangle together, then rose back up on all fours.
“Fuck, what the hell is that?”
“Looks like the Heteromorphs of this area. For now... hup...!”
Suppressing the intense pain with all my might.
I forced my half-recovered knee to stand.
“...Let's get out of here. Indoors seems too dangerous.”
“Okay. Give me the gun.”
Jeong Ha-kyeong took the gun from me.
“Is this really my gun?”
“...?”
“Why does it feel so big?”
Muttering something incomprehensible, she then precisely shot the charging skulls.
Impressive rapid-fire skills.
But the bell tolls kept ringing... and the clatter of bones echoed from all directions.
We had to get out.
The problem hit right then. Jeong Ha-kyeong, trying to support me as we ran, suddenly twisted her ankle.
“...What?”
Jeong Ha-kyeong spoke in a tone like even she couldn't understand it.
“Are these really my shoes?”
“...Pardon?”
“Why are the shoes... so damn big...?”
Her shoes were big?
That was utterly incomprehensible.
“No way that's possible.”
“...?”
“They were custom-made in the Workshop to each member's exact size.”
Wait a sec...?
Only then did I scrutinize Jeong Ha-kyeong's appearance closely... and doubted my eyes.
“Ha-kyeong... your height...?”
“My height?”
“Your height... seems shorter too...?”
Our eye levels.
There used to be a full head's difference... but now she was a head and a half shorter than me.
“And your build too...”
Her frame had grown even more delicate.
She looked like a college girl who'd thrown on her mom's wool coat.
“What the hell is this...”
Clang... the rifle clattered to the ground.
“What...”
Jeong Ha-kyeong stared at her palms, breathing hard... then lifted her head, gazing at me with trembling eyes.
“What happened to me...? What... what's going on with me...?”
We couldn't know it then.
Just how transcendent and perilous the power of the ice dragon that had engulfed Jeong Ha-kyeong truly was.
7.
At first, it seemed like we'd be okay.
Jeong Ha-kyeong roughly adjusted to her shoe size, and we escaped the cathedral of skulls.
“I'll take the lead now. My knee's feeling better.”
But the problem only grew more severe.
“Wait...”
Jeong Ha-kyeong...
Her physical regression into infancy was ongoing.
“I can't run anymore... fuck...”
From adult to college girl.
From college girl to high school girl.
“The shoes are too big... and the gear's too heavy...”
Now she was down to Do Ye-jin's age range. A fresh, round-faced form.
“Ha-kyeong, get on my back.”
When I knelt on one knee in front of her, Jeong Ha-kyeong looked baffled.
“What?”
“They're coming! Hurry!”
Jeong Ha-kyeong hesitated for a moment.
It was no surprise—she hated relying too much on anyone... but she soon faced reality and climbed onto my back.
“Hold on tight. I need to grip my sword, so I can only hold one leg.”
Kwaaaaang—!
The cathedral's roughly shut front doors shattered, and skulls poured out.
“Here we go!”
With that, I.
Dong... dong... dong... dong...
Skated down the snow-covered slope where the eerie bell tolls echoed.
A ruined world flashed by on both sides of my blurring vision.
Toppled spires in ruins.
Stone buildings reduced to brick rubble.
“You hear that sound?”
The voice of the now-childlike Jeong Ha-kyeong.
I'd also sensed presences ahead at that moment.
So I slammed on the brakes.
Just before the body carrying Jeong Ha-kyeong pitched forward, I pressed against the outer wall of a medieval-style building.
“Hey, you okay?”
“Yeah. We didn't hit that hard.”
I cautiously peeked my face out beyond the wall. My brow furrowed.
Huh...?
“What is it? That's... a pilgrim, right?”
Jeong Ha-kyeong whispered softly in my ear from my back.
Right. No matter how I looked, they wore the exact same rags as pilgrims.
“Aha... lai yeraye...”
Wandering through the blizzard, chanting a gloomy hymn.
“Olasir... tar... tarhye... raye...”
Jeong Ha-kyeong spat the words.
“Fuck. About ten of them?”
“But why are they walking?”
“Who knows... but why haven't they turned into skulls?”
That's when I swallowed hard.
The flapping of wings that overturned the sky with deathly silence reached my ears.
At the same time, the stigmata on the back of my hand trembled.
It wasn't draining my strength like before... but the mental terror remained.
「SHIRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK!」
A clear roar.
Like the sound of a winter lake cracking.
The next moment.
Bursting through the blizzard veil.
A bluish frosty breath descended, sweeping over the pilgrims.
“Insane.”
Jeong Ha-kyeong murmured in a daze.
“That's fucking insane.”
An unbelievable sight.
The old, withered pilgrims' bodies seemed to revert to those of the living for an instant, then became full-grown men, next boys... and then... bloody lumps.
Bloody lumps splattering into the snow.
Twitching two or three times before going still.
Three or four turned straight to bare skeletons instead of lumps.
Dong... dong... dong... dong...
And then, drawn by the bells, they began wandering the land.
No... no way?
That's when true terror gripped me. Not because of the pilgrims' tragedy.
Jeong Ha-kyeong.
I'd realized she would soon meet the same tragic end.
I turned to look at Jeong Ha-kyeong.
And for a long while, we stared at each other in silence.
In that moment, perhaps we weren't looking at each other.
But into the deathly abyss that would soon tear us apart completely in the near future.
That's why right after, I.
Carried Jeong Ha-kyeong on my back and raced madly across the snowy plain.
I had to find a way out. A path back to Paradise.
“There has to be a way.”
It was the thirtieth time I'd said that to Jeong Ha-kyeong, but really, it was to myself.
If I could just meet Choi Uk.
Or Shin Tae-yeop or Seo Hwa-yoon. Hell, even the Star Messenger.
Maybe I could find a way to save Jeong Ha-kyeong.
Parting with her wouldn't be a simple farewell.
Jeong Ha-kyeong.
She had become.
The sole, irreplaceable presence in my life.
Kim Gye-sang.
Hong Byeong-gyu.
Yoon Geon-woo.
Cha Seung-hyeon.
The one who shared those radiant memories with them, those dreams—more precious than anything.
Every time Jeong Ha-kyeong's weight lightened, it felt like my heart was being carved out.
But the situation was hopeless.
“Aaahhhhhhh!”
My foot slipped on the snowy path again.
In that instant, I barely slammed the Dawn Sword into the ground to halt the fall.
Damn it all...
Ragged breaths.
Panting, I looked up at the cliffside again.
Nothing in sight...
The blizzard blocked the view, so I couldn't use footwork techniques. I'd failed blindly dozens of times already.
“Let's stop now.”
Jeong Ha-kyeong on my back spoke in a frail voice.
“I'm heavy. Save your strength... until rescue comes.”
She wasn't heavy at all.
Her body had regressed to early elementary school age now.
“Just... give up on me already.”
“No.”
“Give up.”
“No way.”
“Fuck...! Stop being stubborn and give up!”
“I won't give up! You don't give up either, Ha-kyeong!”
I shook my head fiercely.
“We just need to climb to the top of the cliff. Once we're back in Paradise, there has to be a way!”
There has to be a way.
To save Jeong Ha-kyeong... from death. No, there has to be.
“Paradise.”
Jeong Ha-kyeong muttered the word coldly.
“Even if we get back to Paradise...? Even Star Cloud Liquid couldn't stop this.”
She coughed in a childish voice.
Sniffling, she swallowed.
“I'm... so cold...”
“...!”
“No feeling in my hands or feet... If we stay like this, I'll freeze...”
I let out a despairing breath.
No wonder... All Jeong Ha-kyeong wore was the wool cape.
Her gloves and boots were too big, and I'd lost them all during my attempts to climb the cliff.
That's when it happened.
I felt Jeong Ha-kyeong tremble slightly for a moment, then she whispered softly to me.
“Look... to the right. Subtly. Toward the bell tolls...”
“...?”
“Something's watching us.”
The moment I glanced there, a chill ran up my spine.
A bell tower soaring into the sky.
A being perched nobly on its roof.
Gleaming dragon eyes.
Its form was obscured by the blizzard... but it was unmistakably a dragon.
How do I fight it?
It was nearly twice as small as Seksari, but I was carrying Jeong Ha-kyeong right now...
As I thought that.
From the dragon atop the bell tower endlessly tolling over the city, a voice rang out.
「Begone from this frozen land, mortal being.」
A voice as clear and profound as a lake.
「This is a holy site. Do not interfere with the mission of the last true dragon.」
Transcendent like a subordinate.
Yet not eerie like one. Drawn in, I approached closer and shouted.
“Let us out. Just let us leave, and we'll go right now.”
One step, one step.
As I advanced like that. Suddenly, the dragon cried out.
「Halt!」
An info window appeared before my eyes.
[The Flying Dragon, Prates, invokes Dragon Speech, 《Absolute Domain》!]
[Warning: The earth trembles!]
Kugugugugugugugugu—!
The ground shook violently.
Wh... what...?
I couldn't steady myself and my knees buckled completely.
「Mortal, this is your warning. Do not hinder the true dragon's mission—depart this world.」
It was strange.
The voice fading thinner and thinner.
「At the end of light, it is the sole bulwark guarding you mortals.」
When I looked up... absurdly, the bell tower and dragon began dissipating like a mirage.
“Wait, wait just a second!”
I cried desperately.
But by the time my shout ended, neither bell tower nor dragon remained.
Only the snowy plain.
With bell tolls echoing from somewhere, still.