Free Web NovelLee Hyunmook widened his eyes for a moment at the unusual reaction, then burst into laughter and pulled Yohan into his arms. Yohan let out a long sigh, as if finally waking from a nightmare, and only then turned his gaze elsewhere.
It seemed that in Lee Chanha’s hallucination, the only one who had managed to stay sane was Lee Hyunmook. Joo Hoyoung, who had been conjuring ice palaces on all sides like something out of a famous animation, now stood frozen in a daze. Seo Yakrin, dragging a crookedly protruding giant wing from his back, had been grappling with Yoon Seungryong, who was half-turned into an insect. Now both of them blinked about, bewildered. Seo Yakrin let go of the talon with which he had been gripping Seungryong—or rather, pretended to, only to lash him with his wing.
“Argh! That hurts, you old bastard!”
“Oh, my mistake.”
Yoon Seungryong glanced at Yohan and hurriedly forced his body back into some semblance of order. Seo Yakrin also jammed her wing back in place as if shoving it into storage. Yohan couldn’t help but wonder how one could possibly fold away such a massive appendage, but that wasn’t important right now.
Confirming that the three had escaped the hallucination, Yohan’s gaze shifted toward the salt lake. There, the enormous face of Lee Chanha, beautiful enough to chill the bones, glared with wide-open eyes. His gaze was fixed on the black mountain that Yohan had just purified. From the half-submerged face, countless bubbles seethed up through the lake.
Then Yohan, struck with shock, muttered in disbelief.
“W-what is that....”
As the hallucination peeled away, the pristine, fair skin crumbled. The smooth forehead sagged and the nose sloughed off in lumps. Only then did Yohan realize that the beautiful face had been nothing but an illusion.
What appeared in its place was black, slimy, lumpy masses of hideous boils. Some foul liquid—whether pus or some other discharge—flowed endlessly. With every rattling breath the giant Lee Chanha drew, a stench rolled out. The reek that had hung over the salt lake had been the stench of his living body rotting away. The man who had claimed to have obsessive cleanliness now bore the most foul and disgusting form of all....
■■■■■....
■■■.... ■■■■■■ ■■ ■■■....
Unlike in the hallucination, he now uttered incomprehensible guttural cries as his grotesque mass of flesh slowly crawled out of the lake. The twisted eyes embedded here and there within the flesh all stared toward the black mountain. The massive body dragged itself slowly in that direction, drawn to the purest, brightest thing in the Abyss.
The three, now fully free of hallucination, returned to Yohan. Joo Hoyoung muttered bitterly.
“So this... is what you became, Chanha hyung. The last time I saw you, at least you weren’t like this.”
Yohan felt deep pity. He remembered the perfectly fine, even handsome Lee Chanha from before the Abyss. To lose that self, to endlessly deteriorate here—how unbearable must the suffering have been? It was no wonder he had gone mad sooner and worse than anyone else.
The enormous lump of flesh finally stopped at the foot of the black mountain. Stretching his lumpy flesh long, Lee Chanha draped it partway over the mountain, but did not come closer. Seo Yakrin, watching with a sigh, murmured curiously.
“Why doesn’t he come any closer?”
“He’s afraid to defile it, I’d say. That must be it.”
Joo Hoyoung spoke as if he understood. He remembered, before Yohan’s purification, how he himself had hesitated to lay hands on the pristine gaming console, afraid he would soil it. Only when Yohan helped him had he been able to touch it. His gaze drifted to Yohan.
Yohan took another deep breath and pushed more power into it. The shining dome of light expanded, and part of Lee Chanha’s form, pressed dangerously close, was swallowed in it.
■■■■■...! ■■■■ ■■■■■ ■■■!
Lee Chanha shrieked. Where the light touched, his flesh shriveled and hardened, then cracked with sharp sounds before crumbling away. As with Yoon Seungryong before, the agony seemed terrible, but Lee Chanha did not retreat. On the contrary, he pushed himself further into the radiance, forcing his body forward.
‘Hoyoung and Yakrin noona didn’t suffer much when purified, but Seungryong hyung and Deputy Leader Lee Chanha are reacting differently....’
The thought flashed through Yohan’s mind. Could it be that the difference lay in how much they had been affected by Bumram? Hoyoung, who had never once fallen into it, retained a human shape. Seo Yakrin, though once swallowed, had gained wings afterward and likely never fell again. Even contaminated, both of them had been able to speak clearly.
But Yoon Seungryong and Lee Chanha... they must have been influenced by Bumram to an incomparable degree. In that case, what about Lee Hyunmook? By rights, his suffering should be far worse....
Yohan turned from the crumbling figure of Lee Chanha to look at Hyunmook. He realized he could guess nothing about him, except that Hyunmook cherished him deeply. All Yohan could do was hope the man’s pain would lessen.
As Lee Chanha entered the purification field, his body gradually diminished and broke apart. The bulk that had filled the salt lake shrank to half, and then, words emerged from what had been only shrieks. Over and over, he muttered: “Clean, I’m becoming clean.”
No more pus ran from him. The boils dried and crumbled away like foul mud baked by the sun.
When he shrank by half again, the festering wounds began to close. The purification restored his regenerative power. When his body halved yet again, the swollen flesh receded beneath the skin. Half and half ★ 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ★ again....
At last, when he had forced his whole body into the field, Lee Chanha stood with the clean form of a man. Even the black tears that had run ceaselessly from his eyes cleared into a pure shine. He raised his head.
“Ah... ahh....”
Barely able to form words, Lee Chanha ran trembling hands over himself, touching his face, stroking his smooth arms and legs. Tears streamed from his wide eyes as he checked himself again and again. At last, staggering, he looked up at Yohan, who was barely standing with Hyunmook’s support.
He stumbled forward, then collapsed. Crawling on all fours, he dragged himself to Yohan and, dropping his head low to the ground, muttered:
“Thank you, thank you....”
The others did not try to stop him. They either stared blankly or glared with old resentment. Only Yohan turned away, flustered at the sight of a naked man—the deputy leader of the Sunrise Team, no less—prostrating himself in gratitude.
“Um, Seungryong hyung. Could you pull out some clothes for him?”
Yohan, about to request clothes for him, suddenly screamed. In the instant he looked away, Lee Chanha had pressed his lips to Yohan’s foot...! Hyunmook, laughing loudly, scooped Yohan up and carried him off elsewhere.
* * *
As in the Sea of Reeds, once created, the purification field did not quickly vanish. The group now spent time in the area, part of which had become a white mountain. The black mountain no longer felt as dangerous—indeed, it even seemed like a newly created safe zone.
Lee Chanha, who had been endlessly pouring out thanks, finally donned clothes and sat in a daze. Unlike the others, who had quickly regained themselves, he stared blankly at the sparkling eternal stones and his clean skin and hands. Days passed in this vacant, doll-like state before he finally spoke.
“My name is Lee Chanha. Please, call me comfortably.”
“Hello, I’m Yohan. As you know, I Awakened as a purifier.”
Yohan greeted the last missing Sunrise member warmly. A faint smile spread across Chanha’s face, and he spoke with the utmost courtesy.
“Yes, thanks to you, Yohan-nim, I have regained a proper form. Once again, I offer my deepest gratitude.”
“No, no...!”
Yohan hastily stopped him from prostrating again. The burden was crushing.
“Please, just call me Yohan! And drop the honorifics!” ƒreeωebnovel.ƈom
After much pleading, Chanha reluctantly changed to calling him Yohan-gun, but he never dropped the polite speech. His gaze on Yohan was heavy to the point of blind devotion. His kneeling, upturned posture only made it worse. He had once worshipped Bumram—now Yohan could not shake the feeling that the object of his worship had shifted to himself.
