Gong Pil-seung Rescue Operation (3)

"Isn't there another way?"

"Once it activates, that's it. That's what the description says."

Gong Pil-seung's trait. When his body took a severe fright or a heavy enough shock, Gong Pil-seung himself transformed into a bomb of staggering destructive power.

It was similar, in a way, to my own ability to detonate the monsters I possessed. The difference was the yield. His blast was enough to reduce this entire district to rubble.

"Please just run. Take my brother and get out of here. There's nothing more I can do."

"There's really no way to stop it?!"

Gong Pil-seung's body flushed a deeper crimson with every passing second, heat rolling off him in waves. A little more time and he would detonate. Was there truly no way out of this?

"It's not that there's no way. We just can't do it here."

"What is it, then?!"

"Well… if I go underwater, the explosion gets suppressed."

"Water?"

"Yes."

The condition didn't sound particularly demanding. I grabbed a water bottle from nearby and dumped it over him.

Sizzle.

The water vanished the instant it touched his skin, flashing into steam.

So we need a massive volume of water.

A paltry splash like that was useless. And the water we could get in this place amounted to little more than this.

"It's no use, so please just run. If I hold it back as hard as I can, five minutes is about my limit."

"You can last about five minutes?"

"Yes."

"In that case…"

Five minutes. I turned that number over in my head, hunting for a way to stop the blast before the clock ran out.

That place.

A lake, not far from here. That lake would have more than enough water to drown the detonation.

But getting him out of here…

We were in a high-rise. Fortunately, I had a monster built for exactly this kind of escape.

"Whoa! A monster!"

Gong Pil-seung startled all over again at the Harpy that had appeared out of nowhere. Whether he was startled or not no longer mattered. We were out of time.

I ordered the Harpy to grab him, then slashed my knife through the window.

Crash!

The glass exploded outward. And perhaps it was the noise that did it.

"Someone's broken in here too! Search every inch of this place!"

"Yes, sir!"

Word of an intruder had finally spread through the entire building.

"Harpy. Grab him and fly."

-Kieeeek!

On my command, the Harpy snatched Gong Pil-seung up in both talons and shot through the shattered window.

"This door's open!"

The men who burst into the room found themselves face-to-face with me — still inside, still not out the window, and currently eating something.

"Is he… eating?"

"What the hell?"

"Ch… chicken?"

What I was eating was Harpy Fry. They stared, baffled, at a man calmly chewing food in the middle of a raid. Then I gave them something even more confusing to look at.

I broke into a run toward the shattered window. The men in the doorway couldn't hide their shock.

"Wait — this is the twenty-fifth floor!"

"He's jumping?!"

I left their shouts behind and threw myself into open air. As I plummeted, I locked onto the Harpy's position dropping ahead of me, then used the falling speed to kick forward into flight.

Whoo!

The Harpy Fry would keep me in the air for about ten minutes, which was the whole reason I'd eaten it. Originally, Gong Jin-sa and I had planned to use that same effect to escape together. What had become of him, I had no way of knowing.

He got out. He must have.

I pushed the thought of Gong Jin-sa aside and looked ahead at Gong Pil-seung.

He's about to blow.

His body was far redder than it had been minutes ago, a furnace barely containing itself. I watched that overheating frame and felt the landmark I'd been aiming for draw near.

"We should be able to see it around here…"

Ordinary amounts of water were useless against a state like his. He needed to be plunged into a serious body of water all at once. Which was why I'd chosen this.

"There! Seokchon Lake."

After the monsters appeared, the Han River had dried to a cracked bed — but Seokchon Lake still held water, and plenty of it.

-Kieeeek!

The Harpy suddenly screamed. I looked down. Smoke was pouring from its talons.

Gong Pil-seung's body had grown so hot the Harpy could no longer hold him.

Just a little longer. Hang on.

The Harpy's legs were past burned — they were melting, bone showing through the ruin — and the heat was climbing into its wings. At this rate it would drop out of the sky, and if that happened, everyone in this district would die in Gong Pil-seung's blast.

Just a little more!

Really just a little more. Seokchon Lake was right there. But the Harpy looked finished.

-Kieek!

Thud.

The Harpy's grip ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠failed. Gong Pil-seung slipped free and began to fall.

Tumbling through empty air, Gong Pil-seung thought: maybe this was for the best. If he hit the ground and died, at least no one else would be caught in the blast.

He closed his eyes ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠and let go. His body plunged toward ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the earth.

"Huh?"

And then, all at once, he wasn't falling anymore.

He cracked his eyes open. Something white had him in its grip.

"White Dragon! Throw him in Seokchon Lake."

"Okay."

White Dragon shot toward the water and hurled Gong Pil-seung straight in.

SSSSSSSSSSSSHHHHH!

The instant Gong Pil-seung's body hit the lake, a colossal tower of steam erupted off the surface.

"White Dragon, where the hell were you? I told you to wait outside."

"I WAS waiting. You're the one who just took off all of a sudden."

"Did I? Sorry."

"Is 'sorry' supposed to cover it?"

"Then what?"

"Gimme some Harpy Fry."

"Yeah, yeah. Fine."

I'd posted White Dragon outside the building in case something went wrong. Looking back, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the fault was more mine than his. I promised him Harpy Fry later and kept my eyes on the lake.

Gong Pil-seung had boiled off nearly all of Seokchon Lake. Only a shallow skin of water remained at the bottom.

Did it stop?

The steam was still too thick to make out his shape, but the evaporation itself seemed to have ceased.

Flop. Flop.

Around the almost-dry shoreline, fish slapped and gasped in the mud, and the monsters that had lived in the water thrashed about in sudden, bewildered panic at a lake that was no longer there.

"White Dragon. Handle those."

"Got it."

White Dragon swept the shallows, devouring the lake-dwelling monsters one after another. None of them were high-level — just a meal to him.

Chomp. Chomp.

I left him to his enthusiastic feeding, dropped down to the lakebed, and started looking for Gong Pil-seung.

There?

A thin thread of steam still rose from one spot. That had to be him. I approached carefully and called out.

"Gong Pil-seung. You all right?"

No answer. Afraid he might be dead, I moved closer — and found him collapsed on the mud. He no longer looked like he was about to explode, which was a mercy, but he'd clearly lost consciousness.

"Thank god."

The detonation wasn't coming. I hoisted him onto my back and called for White Dragon.

"White Dragon. Over here."

"Mmph, mmph. Huh?"

"Stop eating and get over here."

"Mmph. Let me finish this one."

He seemed determined to eat every last monster in the lake, and he was in no hurry to come.

"Harpy Fry!"

"Yes! Coming!"

One mention of Harpy Fry and he came running. I laid Gong Pil-seung across his back and headed for the rendezvous Gong Jin-sa and I had set in case things went wrong.

About five minutes of hard flying brought us to the meeting point — and someone was already there. A complete stranger.

"Gong Jin-sa?"

"Of course."

He shifted back into his real face. He'd changed his appearance to get out of that building, no doubt.

"Here. This is your brother, right?"

"Pil-seung!"

The moment White Dragon set Gong Pil-seung down, Gong Jin-sa crushed him in an embrace.

"Why didn't you tell me your brother had an ability like that? That whole neighborhood nearly got flattened."

"I figured nothing would hit him that hard except me dying… so what on earth shocked him like that?"

"……"

So the shock of Gong Jin-sa dying and the shock of me speaking in a man's voice were the same size. That was a strange feeling.

"Nngh…"

Gong Pil-seung was stirring.

"Hyung… Hyung!"

"Pil-seung!"

A reunion you couldn't watch dry-eyed. I still couldn't trust Gong Jin-sa all the way — but the way he felt about his little brother, at least, was real.

"Thank you for saving me."

"Don't mention it."

If anything, considering he'd almost exploded because of me, I wasn't sure I could really call it saving him.

"Hey. Gong Jin-sa. You know what'll happen if you try any funny business in the Tower of Death now, right?"

"Of course. Don't worry about it."

He said it readily enough, but I still wasn't entirely at ease. His word had never been the most reassuring currency.

"Alright. I'm heading out. See you when the Tower of Death starts."

"Yeah."

I said my goodbye to Gong Jin-sa, then turned to Gong Pil-seung.

"See you around, if we get the chance."

"Yes. I understand."

We were in the middle of shaking hands when—

Pop.

The Transformation Potion Gong Jin-sa had given me ran out, and I snapped back to my original face. Gong Pil-seung took one look and nearly went into shock all over again — but this time, thankfully, he held it together.

A few days later.

The Tower of Death schedule had finally begun.

"Hoo. Jin-hwan, you ready?"

"Yes. What about you, Ssaem?"

"You know it."

Jin-hwan and I waited at the Busan Shelter, bound for the Tower of Death together. The others had come to see us off.

"Oppa! Be careful!"

"Ssaem! Just clear that Tower of Death like it's nothing!"

"Come back safely."

Their voices followed us as the Tower of Death schedule began.