episode_0122

40. In the Hidden Mask. (3)

A room in a basement where the sound of water drops falling can be heard.

A prison made of crude iron bars. A man lying inside slowly opens his eyes.

As if her appearance was not in good shape, the small and large wounds that had appeared here and there on her body had now healed to some extent, with scabs sticking to her skin.

The clothes he had been wearing were now so tattered that it was hardly possible to call them clothes, as if the wounds on his body were visible, and in his hand he held an axe with a slightly long handle, the blade broken off.

A man slowly gets up from his feet and looks around. Walnut-style.

He was trying to recall why he came here, and the man who came to mind was ‘Choi Young-wol’. He remembered and hit the floor with a ‘thud’.

” You damn kid. Why are you doing something like that all of a sudden…! ”

After finishing the call with Charlotte, I went back to find him leading the reconnaissance team to avoid any unexpected situations, and the sight I saw there was so cruel.

People I only met after joining the reconnaissance team, but they were people I had stories to tell and fought together with to survive.

All of those people were dead. And they had crystals growing on their bodies.

When I heard the scream of ‘Kwaaak!’, I moved my legs and went to find where the sound came from.

” Okay, okay, it doesn’t hurt. It’ll be over soon. ”

There was a man who was hanging with his limbs embedded in crystals that grew out of the floor, and Choi Young-wol who created a crystal from her hand and started poking it into the area where the man’s heart was.

” What the heck is this…! Yeongwol, you…! ”

Choi Young-wol, who was looking at him slightly at his own words, smiled slightly and then poked the heart of the person hanging from the crystal and shook his hand.

When Choi Young-wol pulled her hand out, something black and similar to a human heart were visible within the slightly visible crystal.

” Phew, it’s a bit disappointing that I got caught already, but whatever, it doesn’t matter. ”

” What the hell are you talking about! What the hell is going on here! ”

” I’m sorry sir, but this is my job… ”

After that, he fought against the guys who attacked him, but their synergy was not good, and even when he got close, he was defeated by the skilled swordsmanship displayed by the guy with the crystal sword, even though he mainly used long-range attacks.

No matter how much ability he had, compared to the guy who showed such skillful swordsmanship, he was only swinging an axe that he had become accustomed to through experience.

I lost consciousness due to the guy’s attack and opened my eyes to find myself in this place.

In a damp, yet somehow eerie place.

*****

As he was quietly organizing the situation, he heard footsteps. He was glad to see someone there, but he also thought that the person might be the one who brought him here, so he slowly approached the wall behind him.

Just in case, he uses his powers to cover the parts that are not visible with steel, and reinforces the broken but still somewhat long axe handle with steel. Then, he looks forward and sees a familiar face.

” So, why are you here…? ”

” Don’t be so nervous. I also ran away and came here secretly. ”

His close friend, Oh Hyuk-jin, was in front of him.

Although he looked better than himself, his clothes were quite worn and his face was bruised as if he had been hit somewhere.

He slowly inserted something into the iron bars of the prison cell he was in, and after a while the door opened with a ‘clank’ sound.

A ‘squeaking’ sound can be heard, but it seems to be to prevent others from hearing it.

Seeing his friend slowly and carefully opening the door, he calmly released his ability and slowly crawled out on tiptoe so as not to make a sound.

” Why are you here? It’s definitely Seoul Station… ”

” Well… that’s a long story. When I opened my eyes, I was here… No, everyone who was with me was here. ”

He asked, lowering his voice as he saw his friend cut him off and put his index finger on his lips.

” What the… that many people were here…? ”

” This is a ghost’s fault. I don’t know what the hell he did, but let’s get out of here sooner rather than later. Fortunately, everyone seems to be asleep right now. ”

Chinwoo nodded slightly at Oh Hyukjin’s words and slowly started to climb the stairs.

As Oh Hyuk-jin said, the stairs don’t look dark unless there’s a small torch, indicating that it’s night.

It seemed to be a ruin where dust would pile up with every step I took. I continued to climb the stairs, feeling the sand and dust under my feet. At the end, I could see the outside, brightly lit by moonlight.

” Just go up a little more… ”

As I climbed the stairs, using the faint voice of a close friend as a landmark, I saw the view outside.

The stained glass windows sparkle in the moonlight shining through the gaping holes in the ceiling, indicating that this is a collapsed church.

A large decoration of an adult hanging on a cross was also seen.

But there, contrary to the brightly shining moonlight, there was a pitch-black figure of a gochi wrapped around something.

A strange and eerie feeling. But on the contrary, a sense of longing was somehow pulling at Walnut’s heart.

” What the hell is this? What on earth is it covering… ”

‘Thump, thump’ The moment I walked towards Kochi, knelt down on one knee in front of it, and tried to touch Kochi.

” Wait! What the hell are you doing? I’ve never seen anything like it before, but I think it’s best not to touch it. ”

He came to his senses at the sight of his close friend holding his hand and stopping him.

” Right, it’s dangerous to touch something suspicious like this. Phew, I’m sorry. I wonder what the hell is going on… ”

The moment I turn around and try to leave, I hear a voice.

I hear a voice calling me, ‘Dad.’ A voice I thought I would never hear again.

The voice of my ‘daughter’ that I thought I had forgotten as time passed.

Hearing that voice, he turns back to look at Kochi. As if it was coming from that Kochi.

” Hey, hey! Why are you coming back…!!! ”

When I threw away the arm that was holding me back and dragged my tired body towards the water and touched it, I heard a ‘rustling’ sound, a sensation similar to touching soft silk.

And then slowly, something seemed to come loose, and the knot slowly unraveled, starting from the area that his hand had touched.

And what was inside was…

” Ling…? Why…? Why is this child here…! ”

The figure of his own daughter, ‘Ho-ryeong’, was there.

The feeling I get when I approach the cocoon and slowly stretch out my hand, just like the sight of my daughter in the released cocoon.

Something begins to flow down my cheek, feeling a cold but faint warmth.

Tears flowed unceasingly from his eyes at the thought of meeting his daughter again, who had disappeared due to his own complacency.

*****

Hodushik, who slowly caressed his daughter’s face and then began to hug her, was so happy that he could meet his daughter again, regardless of whether it was a lie or an illusion.

Clearly, the thing that had seemed foreign and creepy until just a moment ago and that he had been afraid to touch was no longer something to be afraid of, but rather something to be thankful for that had allowed him to be reunited with his daughter.

A voice is heard as I hold my daughter like that.

It was a familiar voice, but the emotion felt within it was a voice filled with deep hatred.

” So, how is your daughter whom you haven’t seen in a long time? ”

He slowly turned his head and looked. He saw Oh Hyuk-jin, who had been moving with him just a moment ago.

But his appearance was a little different.

Clearly, a close friend was wearing rags similar to his own, with holes here and there.

Now that I saw him again, he was wearing a robe dyed pitch black. On his chest was the symbol of a cult that worshipped the tower as its god.

In one hand he holds a staff shaped like a tower.

” No, what the heck… just now… ”

” Everything, everything is given by the ‘true god’. My clothes, my staff, my abilities. ”

” Ability… you say…? ”

Oh Hyuk-jin shows off his abilities by waving his hands as if he doesn’t know what he’s talking about.

The scenery changes every time he waves his hands here and there. People disappear and reappear. And… black smoke flows out.

” With this power, I gathered people who know the same ‘pain’ as me and made them one. That is the ‘Obelisk’. It may seem like they are worshipping the tower to others, but in fact it is different.

We are a group that worships the true god, Thanatos. Not the idiots and idiots that we may or may not know exist.

And it is our ‘purpose’ to bring him back to life. ”

” What are you talking about?! Reviving God? That’s ridiculous… ”

” That doesn’t make sense… But if that’s the case, the ‘girl’ you met will soon become a god. ”

” A girl… No way… ”

The image of a girl comes to mind when I hear those words. Charlotte comes to mind.

” Really, it’s a shining child. It’s a shame to ruin it… Well, it doesn’t matter now. ”

” What did you do to Charlotte! ”

A girl I met after losing my daughter. I only knew Charlotte for a short time, but the way they treated each other… I could feel the relationship between them as between a father and a daughter.

It was a pity to ruin such a child… At those words, Hodushik could not hold back his anger and shouted loudly.

The man in front of him pointed his finger at himself. No, not at himself… but at the daughter he was holding in his arms.

” The original plan was to ruin the child and make her into our saint and a vessel for God, but things went a little differently.

But in preparation for that, we had already found ‘another vessel’. That was ‘your daughter’. ”

” What are you talking about? This child I’m holding in my arms right now must be an illusion! What can I say to a child who’s already dead…! You saw it too! ”

When I couldn’t hold it in anymore and shouted, Oh Hyuk-jin laughed loudly and held his stomach, and I felt a strange sense of intimidation.

As if he was laughing at his own judgment being wrong.

” Hahaha! Yeah, you could think that way. So he probably didn’t know that his daughter died in his stead, which was his ‘original fate’. ”

At those words, I felt dazed as if I had been hit in the head with something.

Originally, he was dead? His daughter died in his stead. What does that mean?

” Don’t you know yet? Your daughter, Yeong-i, already had ‘abilities’ at that point.

That’s a really great ability. The ‘ability to change fate’ that God has ordained. Thanks to that, that child can become ‘another vessel’. ”

Walnut food made my head feel dizzy.

My precious friend, Oh Hyuk-jin. He was one of the kindest people I knew, a devout believer who cared more about others than himself.

It was hard to believe that he was deceiving people, abandoning the gods he believed in, and being unscrupulous in achieving his goals.

No, what was even more surprising was that his own daughter was already an ‘Awakened One’ with awakened abilities.

Since when did you have this ability?

And why didn’t you tell yourself that?

The fact that Oh Hyuk-jin, a stranger, knew something about his daughter that he didn’t know about.

His daughter, who was held in his arms with eyes that seemed to have lost everything. No, he was just quietly looking at something that might not even be his daughter.