Free Web NovelThe improved vision that came with becoming a high-ranked Awakener made it clear to Yohan what the two were doing. Seo Yakrin, boldly, walked straight into the black mountain, squatted down, and stretched out his hand. After fumbling around with something, he eventually lay flat on the ground. Neither Joo Hoyoung nor Yoon Seungryong or even Lee Hyunmook showed the slightest concern, but Yohan alone was restless.
He kept worrying whether his suggestion had been meaningless, or whether the black mountain might suddenly swallow up Seo Yakrin or Joo Hoyoung. And then nearly an hour passed, yet the two showed no sign of returning. Finally, Joo Hoyoung quickly came back from where they were and delivered Seo Yakrin’s words.
“It’s going to take a while, so he says we should just head back, eat dinner, and sleep first.”
“How long will it take? And it’s not dangerous or anything, right?”
“Don’t worry, Yohan-hyung! Yakrin-noona’s pretty tough, you know!”
Joo Hoyoung answered cheerfully, looking as if there really was nothing wrong. Reluctantly, Yohan left the two behind and returned to the old tree dwelling, but he reminded them to come back at mealtimes for food.
Even after returning to the old tree shelter, Seo Yakrin still did not come back for a long time. The next morning, only after Yohan had tossed and turned all night before finally dozing off and then waking up to find Yoon Seungryong preparing breakfast, did Seo Yakrin return with Joo Hoyoung.
“Yakrin-noona! Hoyoung!”
Yohan jumped up and greeted them warmly, and the frown on Seo Yakrin’s face brightened instantly.
“Our Yohan! Were you worried about noona?”
Striding up, Seo Yakrin touched Yohan’s cheek with her fingertips, soft and playful. But her eyes gradually went wrong. Grinding her teeth, she suddenly looked as if she could not resist, and just as she was about to throw her arms around him tightly, Lee Hyunmook pulled Yohan back. Seo Yakrin’s arms clutched the air in vain, her eyes slanting upward, blazing with blackish-red fire.
“Why has only the team leader been monopolizing Yohan since before?! Hand him over now! Or else I won’t just sit back!”
Her fierce shout burned with rage in her eyes and voice. She even seemed ready to draw in power, a dangerous aura rising around her. Golden ripples leaked out, her hair floating as though in zero gravity. Joo Hoyoung yelped and clutched his game console protectively, hurrying far away. Yoon Seungryong, tasting the broth of bone-birds and flesh-birds he had simmered into something like ginseng chicken soup, sprinkled in salt and muttered.
“Damn, has she lost her mind? Talking back to the team leader....”
Seo Yakrin looked ready to strike at any moment, but as Lee Hyunmook silently watched her with that unwavering stare, she faltered, unable to attack easily. Yohan, sensing the red gleam in her eyes, realized this sudden fury came from madness induced by contamination. Contaminated people often grew more frenzied the more they used their powers, and Seo Yakrin must have expended a great deal within the black mountain.
Yohan quickly showered her with light. The murderous glare aimed at Hyunmook gradually faded. Soon after, Seo Yakrin’s pupils wavered as she regained her senses. With Hyunmook’s gaze still fixed on her, her head drooped lower and lower. Once she was completely subdued, Hyunmook spoke calmly.
“Yakrin.”
“Yes....”
Just as Yoon Seungryong had once become utterly polite, Seo Yakrin now answered in honorifics.
“If you can’t control your strength, don’t come near Yohan.”
“Yes....”
With Seo Yakrin cowed under Hyunmook’s eyes, the crisis passed, and Joo Hoyoung quickly came back. Yohan, embarrassed, purified Seo Yakrin more thoroughly. Since he was a high-ranked Awakener himself, even if she had hugged him with all her strength, he might have only gotten a little hurt—still, the situation had been awkward. ...Or maybe not? After confirming she had calmed down, Hyunmook made a suggestion.
“Shall we eat first and then talk?”
Everyone was both hungry and curious about the outcome of the attempt to communicate with the black mountain, so they gathered together. After each of them devoured three or four bone-birds and flesh-birds, Seo Yakrin rummaged in her chest and pulled something out.
“I managed to get a few Eternal Stones.” freewebnσvel.cѳm
The stones she produced gleamed in many colors. Yohan glanced at his own Eternal Stone, swirled in black and white. Even after countless purifications, its natural color remained black, as if it had been pitch-dark inside until infused with his power, leaving behind only a white core.
“And also....”
Pausing for a moment, Seo Yakrin finally gave the conclusion everyone had been waiting for.
“It could ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) talk.”
“For real?”
Yohan’s eyes widened. The suggestion he had made just on a whim had actually worked? He was burning with curiosity about what the black mountain had said. Yet Seo Yakrin’s expression was not bright. She looked conflicted, even bitter.
“Those Eternal Stones... they all came from different places.”
Yohan blinked in confusion, then understood.
“In other words, Earth wasn’t the first. This bastard of a thing has devoured... countless places over countless ages.”
Her words hinted that the Abyss had swallowed innumerable worlds unknown to them. A heavy silence followed. Yohan felt a chill at the thought of this vast, terrifying entity—the Abyss—with its transcendent malice beyond human comprehension.
“Well, yeah, there were way too many for them to have all just come from Earth.”
Yoon Seungryong chuckled faintly. Looking at the distant outline of the black mountain, Yohan felt crushed by the thought of the impossibly vast number of Eternal Stones it was made of, remembering how rarely one dropped from a monster.
“And was there anything else?”
Joo Hoyoung asked without much hope. Seo Yakrin shrugged.
“It really hates and opposes the Bumram.”
“Well, of course.”
That was natural. Eternal Stones were like leftover bones that could not be digested, left behind after being gnawed, twisted, and melted by the Bumram. Of course they would loathe the very thing that had made them what they were.
“I also asked if there was any way out of here. Like I said before, it doesn’t feel like talking to a person. Even just delivering the question and making it understand was really difficult.”
Even before she finished speaking, none of them looked very expectant. Seo Yakrin’s expression had never been hopeful to begin with.
“But it did give one answer.”
She lifted her hand and pointed down. Her finger aimed at the ground.
“It said to go down.”
“Down...?”
Yohan repeated blankly. Seo Yakrin shrugged.
“More precisely, it said to go beneath the black mountain. But I don’t know if it really understood my question. Why on earth would it say to go below?”
Beneath the black mountain.
At those words, Yohan’s trauma surged. Being buried alive inside that mountain had been the most terrifying experience he’d had in the Abyss. The others all seemed deep in thought about Seo Yakrin’s words. Yoon Seungryong lay back and closed his eyes, Seo Yakrin glared at the mountain, and even Joo Hoyoung wasn’t playing his beloved games. And Lee Hyunmook...
“Want to sleep a bit?”
“No....”
Shaking his head, Yohan scooted closer beside him. Glancing around nervously, he secretly fiddled with Hyunmook’s hand. Hyunmook smiled, caught Yohan’s twitching fingers, then let go again. After some playful fidgeting, Yohan asked.
“Will we go under the black mountain?”
“Well. I don’t know if we really need to. Even Yakrin said she wasn’t sure if it understood properly.”
Hyunmook had a point. Even if Seo Yakrin had conveyed the meaning accurately, could they trust this bizarre congregation of Eternal Stones at all?
“But... it might be a clue to getting out of the Abyss, right?”
“Could be. Why, do you want to go?”
“No. That place is too frightening.”
Yohan shuddered. He still often dreamed of being buried beneath the mountain. Even if it changed shape into a rainbow crystal mountain instead of black, it would still be terrifying to approach. But suddenly, something else made him curious.
“But... this Abyss. What kind of structure does it have? Is it like Earth, a round planet?”
The fastest human alive, Joo Hoyoung, answered.
“It’s more like a chunk of land just floating. You know those flat-earth theories? Looks like the kind of thing their believers would love.”
Yohan understood. He too had once seen an image of a flat continent just hanging in space.
“If you go past the special zones, you just hit endless wastelands. Beyond that, only cliffs. And beyond the cliffs—nothing but that dreadful sky stretching on forever.”
“Ugh, not a sight I’d want to see with my own eyes.”
Seo Yakrin shuddered. How must Joo Hoyoung have felt, the moment he reached those cliffs after running and running? No doubt he had despaired endlessly. All of them had once desperately sought ways out of the Abyss. To have fallen into despair again and again before they could now speak of it so calmly—how long must that suffering have lasted?
“Well, we’ve dug into the ground before, haven’t we? I doubt there’s anything special under the black mountain.”
Yoon Seungryong yawned. When Yohan asked out of curiosity, the answer came back that no matter where they dug, they eventually hit an extremely hard bedrock layer they couldn’t get past. But hearing that made something else come to Yohan’s mind.
