Chapter 6. How to Escape the Shadow Swamp
Chapter 6. How to Escape the Shadow Swamp
Chapter 6. How to Escape the Shadow Swamp
Even after Han So-hee left the room, I remained frozen for a long time.
The look in her eyes as she had cornered me against the wall and glared at me.
That wasn't the look of the 'loyal rival' I had seen in the original work.
It was the madness of a predator who would never let its target go, and the slimy, deep-seated possessiveness beneath it.
'I'm not imagining it. Han So-hee is changing, just like Sia.'
With trembling hands, I set down the spoon that had gone cold.
Two weeks ago, I had come here to escape Kim Sia's obsession.
But it was like jumping out of the tiger's den only to walk straight into the crocodile's jaws.
Knowledge of the original work? A lifeline?
I let out a bitter laugh.
I had taken the instincts of the women in this world far too lightly.
In this world where male resources were extremely rare, a man like me, with fraudulent healing abilities and an unrivaled appearance, wasn't just someone to be protected.
To them, I was 'booty' that had to be captured and locked away in a nest by any means necessary.
I carefully peeked out through the crack in the door.
At the end of the hallway, near So-jin's room, I heard Han So-hee's low muttering.
"......It only needs to hurt a little, So-jin-ah. Then Haneul-i will be by our side forever. You like Haneul-hyeong too, right? Hmm? Nuna is doing this all for you."
My heart sank.
Right now, what kind of crazy talk is this?
She's going to drive her own sister back into the jaws of death just to keep me here?
There wasn't a shred of guilt in her voice.
If anything, she sounded excited, like a child who had just received a new toy.
'If I stay like this, I'm truly finished.'
I hurriedly packed my bags.
All I had to pack were a few sets of clothes So-hee-nuna had given me to change into, and So-jin's emergency medicine, the location of which I had secretly figured out while she was asleep.
I crept toward So-jin's room.
Fortunately, it seemed So-hee-nuna had gone down to the lower levels of the hideout for a moment.
Inside the room, So-jin was sitting on the bed with a pale face.
"......Haneul-hyeong?"
"So-jin-ah, be quiet. We have to leave here now."
So-jin looked at me with terrified eyes.
Thanks to the care I had taken to treat her over the past two weeks, the child trusted me completely.
Perhaps instinctively sensing her sister's madness, So-jin took my hand without a word.
"Nuna...... Nuna is scary. A while ago, she tried to put some strange black smoke into my body."
"I know. Hyeong will protect you. Let's go."
We ran toward the hideout's emergency exit.
It was the route the executives always used to escape when the branches of the Black Wings were raided in the original work.
I already had that path, which Han So-hee had never shown me, memorized in my mind like a map.
When we passed through the dark, damp underground passage and climbed to the surface, the cool night air stung my lungs.
But there was no time to be relieved.
This was an abandoned factory district on the outskirts of Seoul.
It wasn't near the Academy where Kim Sia would be scouring the area with eyes of fire to find me, but instead, it was a place crawling with other predators.
"Hyeong, over there......!"
In the spot So-jin pointed to, a van with a flashy emblem stood parked.
[Korea Hunter Association - Emergency Response Team].
'Dammit, why is the Association here of all places?'
In the original work, male characters rarely appeared, so this was information usually brushed off as TMI.
In this gender-reversed world, the Association was practically a 'state-sanctioned predator group.'
Especially if a male ability user with an unclear identity like me was discovered, they were the kind of women who would lock me away in a safe house (read: prison) somewhere in the Association's basement under the guise of 'protection' and extract mana and other things(?) from me for the rest of my life.
"Unidentified male discovered! To think there are young men in such a suspicious place. Seems like an investigation is in order, don't you think? Slurp~"
The eyes of the female hunters who got out of the van flashed.
Those weren't the eyes of righteous law enforcers.
They were the greedy eyes of prospectors who had just discovered a 1 billion won diamond on the side of the road.
"Oh my, they're even prettier up close, aren't they? Girls, catch them without leaving any marks. If even a scratch gets on those precious faces, our bonuses are going to fly away~"
Three or four female hunters approached, licking their lips.
I hid So-jin behind me and stepped back.
"D-don't come any closer! There's a villain behind us......!"
The moment I tried to shout, the shadow beneath my feet began to writhe grotesquely.
"Haneul-ah...... where do you think you're going?"
My heart felt like it had frozen at the voice from behind me.
When I turned my head, Han So-hee was standing there, carrying all the darkness of the abandoned factory on her back.
Her silver hair fluttered in the night wind, and black shadows coiled around her entire body like snakes.
"S-So-hee-nuna......."
"Did you try to abandon me, even taking So-jin-ah with you? After everything I did to get here for you. After how much I love you!"
Black tears flowed from Han So-hee's eyes.
It was the result of her runaway shadow mana contaminating even her tear ducts.
"Love? That's not love! It's just obsession!"
"Shut up! I'd rather die than watch other bitches look at you! Do you think I don't know how those Association hags would treat you? You are only safe within my shadow. You can only breathe within my embrace!"
As she reached out, a giant shadow hand burst through the ground and engulfed the Association hunters.
In an instant, chaos erupted.
The Association hunters unleashed their mana and rushed at Han So-hee, and a maddened Han So-hee began to crush them while clad in her [Shadow Armor].
I took that opportunity to hold So-jin and start running again.
But it wasn't an enemy's attack that caught my ankle.
Whiririk!
"Ugh!"
My own shadow suddenly wrapped around my ankle like a rope.
Han So-hee had kept her eyes on me and maintained her ability even while in battle.
"Don't go...... Haneul-ah...... please......."
Han So-hee pleaded, looking back at me while clutching the throat of one of the hunters.
Her face, covered in blood, contrasted with her pitiful voice. That dissonance maximized the horror.
That was when it happened.
From the direction of the city far away, a golden flash, more brilliant and terrifying than the starlight adorning the night sky, was approaching this place at high speed.
No, rather than light, it was closer to a massive 'tidal wave.'
Kwaaaaang!
Just by the flash slamming into the ground, the concrete floor of the abandoned factory crumpled like paper.
Due to the immense wind pressure, Han So-hee's shadow restraint was forcibly torn away, and the Association hunters were blown far away without even being able to scream.
A girl walked slowly out from between the clouds of dust.
The moment I saw her, I even forgot how to breathe.
"......This is impossible."
My lips trembled.
The person standing before my eyes was definitely Kim Sia.
But the color of the mana she was emitting was strange.
In the original work [Hunter's Age], Kim Sia's unique ability was [Wish].
A dazzling golden light where a noble aspiration to save humanity turned into power, healing the wounds of those around her and purifying evil.
It was supposed to be the warmest and most sacred light in the world.
But what was surrounding Kim Sia right now was the mana of [World of Obsession], golden in color, yet seemingly rotting black on the inside.
'What is this...... what is this? Why is the power of a wish so heavy and unpleasant?'
Wherever the light touched, it wasn't healing, but 'corrosion' and 'destruction' that occurred.
Behind her, afterimages of mana in the shape of giant eyes rose up, staring only at me.
A twisted evolution that hadn't even had a single line of mention in the original work.
No, it was a development that the system of this world itself shouldn't have allowed.
"Haneul-ah...... I found you."
The moment I heard Sia's voice, I instinctively realized. That was no longer the voice of a hero.
"S-Sia-ya? Why is your ability...... what on earth did you do?!"
At my horrified question, Sia wore a smile that was grotesquely beautiful.
Her eyes were already consumed by golden madness, and their focus was blurred.
"Hmm? Ah, this power? It's nothing, Haneul-ah. I just missed you so much...... I prayed desperately that I wanted you to stay by my side, and the power simply answered my heart."
"That can't be! [Wish] isn't a power like this! This is...... this is a curse!"
Despite my shouting, Sia didn't care and approached one step at a time.
Every time she took a step, the ground burned black.
The [Wish] that was supposed to protect the world had been devoured by the twisted desire to possess me alone, falling into the [World of Obsession].
"Whether it's a curse or a blessing, it doesn't matter. If it means you can stay by my side, I can become anything."
Sia's gaze lingered on the traces of Han So-hee's shadow that had tried to bind my ankle.
At that moment, even a hint of humanity vanished from Sia's expression.
"So it was you who dared to touch my Haneul-i with those filthy hands, silver-haired villain?"
"......Kim Sia. You've become a monster."
Han So-hee spat out as if groaning and raised her [Shadow Armor] to its maximum.
In the original work, they had a rivalry, but that was a story for when the middle of the story was reached.
Han So-hee, who was a fully-formed ability user from her debut, and Sia, a growing ability user, should have had a gap between them like a child and an adult at this point in time.
But even Han So-hee, an executive of the Black Wings, was feeling instinctive fear in the face of the overwhelming 'malice' emitted by the fallen protagonist.
"I'll kill you. Any bitch who touches my treasure, I'll leave nothing behind, not even a single cell."
As Sia waved her hand lightly, thousands of black-gold spears were created in the air.
I hugged So-jin tightly to my chest and trembled all over.
The knowledge of the original work I had known now had to be thrown into the trash bin.
The protagonist had fallen and become a disaster worse than the final boss, and the supporting character who said she would protect me was trying to imprison me.
'What...... what have I done? Did I turn that hero into a monster?'
My careless intervention, Park Haneul's, had completed the girl who was the hope of humanity into the most beautiful and cruel avatar of ruin in the world.
Sia reached out her blood-stained hand toward me.
In her eyes, visible beyond that hand, an eternal prison—[World of Obsession]—was swirling, meant to contain only the existence of me.
"Haneul-ah, come here. The bad dream is over now. From now on, let's be happy inside me forever."
I stepped back.
The bad dream is over? As far as I'm concerned, this situation itself is the nightmare!
But behind me, another swamp of obsession, Han So-hee's shadow, was opening its maw.
A dilemma.
Between the two mad predators, I finally realized.
That this world was no longer the animation I had known.
Kim Sia liked this black, sticky mana surging inside her body very much.
The [Wish] of the past had been too troublesome.
It had been burdened with obsessions about needing to help others or needing to protect the world.
But on that day she lost Haneul-i, Sia thought that none of that mattered.
'I don't care what happens to the world. I only need Haneul-i.'
The moment that desperate and selfish 'wish' broke through its limits, her unique ability reflected the owner's heart and changed its form.
Not a light for others, but a darkness only for herself.
Now, her power was a compass to find Haneul-i, a birdcage to trap Haneul-i, and a flame of judgment to destroy everything that looked at Haneul-i.
Even Haneul-i's horrified expression was adorable to her.
'It's okay, Haneul-ah. It might be scary now...... but once I lock you inside my embrace, you'll soon know. How much I cherish you. I'll make sure that no one else's touch, other than mine, ever reaches that white skin of yours♡'
Her [Obsession] was now ready to dye the whole world in darkness to swallow the sun that was Park Haneul.