KEG 105

I had to find Won Orim, who must have fled somewhere to escape the flower. I hurriedly ran in the direction he had fled.

I hoped Won Orim wouldn’t have a change of heart just like Five Blossoms did.

Crunch! Flash!

Another white flash struck the black flower. Now not only the petals, but the stem and leaves had turned pitch black. It was clearly a plant, yet as it burned black, it exuded the smell of burning protein. The flower was disgusting in every way.

“Master! Please don’t do this…! Aaah!”

As I ran out into a slightly wider area, green vines were dragging people along.

Even though they’d been scraped against the stone floor, the people weren’t bleeding. Instead, like a well-sharpened pencil, a graphite-like blackness was exposed on the inside of their bodies.

“You’re simply paying the price for living peacefully in my embrace… Don’t be afraid…”

The flower spoke through the guildmaster’s body.

Fuck. I ran into the flower while tracking Won Orim.

It hadn’t spotted me yet, so maybe I could slip away if I played my cards right.

“Flower by the Ear! Help me!”

The person being dragged by a vine spotted me and screamed.

Swoosh!

Before I could even react, a vine flew at me.

It sliced through the wall I was leaning against for cover. The cutting power was insane.

If I get caught, I’m dead.

I picked up a fist-sized rock that was rolling on the ground. Then, with all my might, I threw it in the exact opposite direction of the guildmaster.

Thud!

The stone hit the distant wall with a crisp sound,

Whoosh! Thud!

The vine flew toward the stone.

Just like the flower monsters outside the hospital’s fire shutters, they were highly sensitive to sound. And before launching the vine, it always made that “whoosh” sound too.

“The attack trajectory is also in a straight line.”

I threw another stone. This time, I threw it a little farther.

As expected, the vine flew toward it. And I was now certain.

“The range is just under one kilometer.”

After figuring it out, I immediately appeared before the guildmaster. She was still swinging the vines, her eyes completely blackened.

Several people were entangled in the vines, but Won Orim wasn’t among them. I counted to three in my head.

One,

two,

three.

Whoosh-!

Just as I’d predicted, I heard the sound of a vine whipping through the air.

It flew toward me in a straight line.

Boom!

I simply shifted my stance to the side and dodged it effortlessly. With that, I had a rough grasp of the situation.

“Just some bastard relying on its parasitic ability to act all high and mighty.”

The flower reacted to my voice and attacked again. This time, I heard the sound of four swings.

But whether I heard it four times or a hundred times, unauthorized copy the trajectory was still a straight line. I could dodge it with just the slightest movement.

What was needed was courage and peripheral vision.

“Stray dog… h… help, I need help, help… h-help… help me…”

Upon seeing me, the guildmaster groaned. Black liquid oozed from every orifice in her face. Perhaps the flower’s own power had weakened from the relentless barrage of white flashes, for the voice of the being in the black dress grew quieter and quieter.

Flash!

With a tremor that shook the earth, the village lit up in an instant.

Rip–

The sky tore apart.

A portal to another dimension was opening here.

While the inside of a gate is pitch black, the sky that had just been torn open was blindingly white, as if it would erase everything within.

“Aaaargh!”

The guildmaster collapsed to the ground. The vines extending from her body writhed in agony, like worms crushed underfoot.

I approached the guildmaster.

“Are you conscious? Can you answer me?”

“I-I… I… Where am I…?”

Her eyes were still black, even the whites, but she was able to communicate to some extent.

“Do you remember your name?”

“I-I’m… Joo Eunyoung…. I’m sure I died in battle…”

“This isn’t the real world. How far back can you remember?”

The Twinkle Guild leader, Joo Eunyoung, hesitated as she recounted her memories. Even as she spoke, black fluid flowed from her mouth and nose. Everything had been consumed to the point where even the root of her tongue had turned black.

“I-I… I destroyed our guild… sniff, sniff…. With my own hands….”

“Calm down.”

“I got too greedy…”

Joo Eunyoung said she had wanted to film a video with her guild members that would get a lot of views. She said she had been injured by a vine, and a flower had bloomed on her head.

“I’m just too weak…! Because I’m not like Hunter Baek Yejun, I was defeated by a mere flower…!”

“Did Baek Yejun get a flower blooming on his head too?”

“Yes. Once he learned that people whose flowers bloomed were sent somewhere else, he didn’t hesitate and…”

That crazy bastard.

So he got himself hurt on purpose just to come here? There must have been plenty of ways to defeat it, why did he go and do something like that?

“A survivor mentioned that there are people here.”

Shit, so I was the cause.

Does that mean Baek Yejun is somewhere in this village?

I didn’t have the time to search, so I didn’t even feel like looking for him.

He’s strong, so he’ll figure it out and make it out on his own.

I just needed to find a way to survive.

“Joo Eunyoung-ssi, can you use your ability?”

Joo Eunyoung staggered to her feet at my words. I could see black cracks spreading across her body in real time.

Even so, she pulled a white staff inlaid with a pink gemstone out of thin air.

“I may have died as a monster out there, but here, I must die as a human.”

She declared solemnly and aimed her attack at the flower. I spoke to Joo Eunyoung, who was casting her spell.

“Hunter Joo Eunyoung, I’m still alive. If you could just pluck my flower…”

Crack…

Joo Eunyoung’s left arm shattered and fell to the ground. Soon after, her right shin broke as well.

Joo Eunyoung lost her balance and collapsed onto the floor, just like a concrete building crumbling.

“Ugh…! Guh…! Please, at least let me die…!”

Joo Eunyoung’s graphite-like body, shattered into pieces on the floor, glinted in the light. It was strange, but seeing her like that amidst this chaos reminded me of stars in the night sky.

“Move! Move…! You useless…! Aah…!”

A fine crack appeared in Joo Eunyoung’s neck with a “tick” sound.

“……”

I heard the sound of air escaping, and soon she was unable to speak.

Joo Eunyoung’s pitch-black pupils had no whites, so I couldn’t tell where she was looking. [stolen content]But for some reason, I felt like she was looking at me.

“…Joo Eunyoung-ssi. Can you hear me?”

Joo Eunyoung’s eyes fluttered once. I knelt on one knee and moved closer to her face.

“I don’t know if you remember, but I was once saved by the Twinkle Guild.”

Blink.

Her eyes fluttered.

“Are you still human?”

…Blink.

“Do you want to die as a human?”

…Blink…

Joo Eunyoung’s blinking was gradually slowing down. It meant there wasn’t much time left.

“I can kill Espers.”

Joo Eunyoung stopped blinking.

From the torn sky, even more powerful flashes of light struck down, and the giant flower in the square turned so black it caught fire. The village was gradually losing its shape.

“Is that what you want?”

The black liquid flowing from Joo Eunyoung’s eyes momentarily lightened in color. It looked like black ink diluted with water.

I reached out and closed Joo Eunyoung’s eyes.

“I understand.”

Flash!

As if the heavens were passing judgment, the world shook, and I made the sign of the cross over my chest.

***

The village was reduced to a wasteland.

“Won Orim! Where are you!”

I wandered through the village, searching for Won Orim. Just as Guildmaster Joo Eunyoung had regained her memory, it was highly likely that Won Orim had recovered as well.

‘Not a single one of us, with our incomplete wreaths, can see the Light of Life.’

Won Orim must have recalled his own death. And he must have recalled me, who ordered it, and Lee Yuksam, who carried it out.

No matter how much I called out to him, there was a chance he wouldn’t come out.

“Would anyone want to talk to the person who killed them?”

I let out a sigh and touched the flower by my ear. Without Won Orim, I’d have to do it myself.

Snap–

“Ugh…”

Perhaps because Five Blossoms had already torn some of the petals, even the slightest touch hurt so much it felt like I might faint. It felt like someone was sticking a needle into my brain.

Rip–

“Aaaargh!”

A scream finally escaped my lips. Cold sweat broke out all over my body, and my nails dug into the hands I’d clenched tight in pain.

But no blood came out.

I looked at the wounds my nails had carved, and saw that the inside of my body was as black as graphite. My strength drained away, and I paused for a moment.

“…Is this all I’ve managed to pluck?”

Two petals remained in my hand.

It felt as if I’d been subjected to electric torture, yet the price was too meager.

Does that mean I’m incapable of tearing it out hard enough to give myself a heart attack?

“Hah… What am I supposed to do with this?”

I could only pluck the flower if I find Won Orim or Baek Yejun, who might not even be here.

Won Orim had an incomplete wreath. The goal of the people with incomplete wreaths was to remain in the village.

Even now, at this very moment, do they still hope to stay?

“Even if they don’t hope for it, they can’t leave anyway…”

Those who chose the lesser evil were ultimately abandoned even by that lesser evil.

So what will happen? What choice will they make?