Chapter: 209
‘What the heck is that?’
Iris frowned as she looked at the blackened shape. There were letters written on it, but she couldn’t read them. They said [ Self-Censorship ] in Hangul, but Iris didn’t know Hangul, so it was just gibberish to her.
With each step Lian took, countless monsters gathered around him. Some looked ordinary, like the match-selling girl, but most were grotesque enough to make you want to hurl just by looking at them.
As these beings clustered around her brother, Iris felt a tingling unease in her fingertips and toes.
She clung tightly to Lian’s side, casting wary glances at her surroundings, yet no one seemed to react to her.
Then, Lian sat down on the least mangled chair in a wrecked classroom and began listening to the class.
The creature referred to as a professor made incomprehensible sounds that didn’t convey any meaning to Iris. However, Lian nodded along or expressed admiration at intervals, as if he understood perfectly.
After staying so close to him for a while, Iris began to feel her consciousness fading.
‘Oh…no, if I fall asleep…’
Her mind started slipping into a fog, as if she’d taken a sedative, and soon her vision darkened.
Thud.
“Gah…!”
When she regained her senses, she found herself outside the building. With a startled face, she quickly looked around.
‘Has more time passed?’
The ruined city was now half-consumed by nature. Cars that had only been ruined were rusting, and water was pooling in the broken roads.
The sky remained overcast, thick with dark clouds, casting a gloomy atmosphere over the half-collapsed skeletal structures that used to be buildings.
As Iris tried to conceal her chaotic feelings and surveyed the area, a familiar voice rang out nearby.
“Ugh—”
“…!”
She whipped her head around to see someone very familiar walking calmly with a serene face. He effortlessly navigated the now hardly passable terrain like it was just a lumpy path.
Feeling anxious, Iris began to urgently follow Lian from behind.
“Gah… huff…”
Unable to use magic, Iris’s breath became increasingly ragged over time. In contrast, Lian was as unbothered as ever, continuing on without losing his breath.
Iris gulped down her dry throat, pushing herself to speed up.
The surroundings were still filled with the unknown, but she occasionally spotted familiar signs or buildings. This allowed Iris to catch onto Lian’s destination.
‘That building full of strange monsters…’
If Lian could truly see her, she felt she would want to hug him tightly and stop him. But still, she couldn’t even grasp at his clothing.
All Iris could do was grit her teeth and do her best to keep up.
After quite a trek over the rough terrain, they arrived at the university, now looking like a completely different place.
“…!”
Iris gaped at the sight of a massive plant that had become even more gruesome than before.
The plant that had swallowed the entire building had grown twice its size, and on top of it, a stunning flower as large as an entire floor blossomed beautifully. Moreover, the vines were now adorned with dangerously sharp thorns, giving off a really menacing vibe.
As the vines rustled and moved quietly, Iris desperately tried to grab Lian, but he just marched on unfazed.
He headed towards what used to be the entrance, moving with a sense of familiarity.
Rustle.
The thorns, which seemed like they would easily sever a person’s life, spread out like the soft fur of a puppy, almost as if they were worried about him getting hurt.
Iris felt an odd sense of alienness and unease but continued to follow closely behind Lian.
“…!”
The moment she stepped into the building after Lian, countless eyes seemed to descend upon the two of them, ready to devour them.
‘These are all… monsters?’
It was hard to tell how much time had actually passed, but the interior of the building was filled with grotesque beings. Iris stood next to Lian, swallowing her nausea repeatedly. Her face turned pale, and her fingertips trembled.
“Good morning, everyone!”
To Lian, the monsters appeared as ordinary people, and he greeted them cheerfully. Despite looking like they could tear him apart at any second, they merely stared at him instead of pouncing.
In fact, as he walked, they cleared a path for him. Lian confidently walked through the crowd.
Occasionally, there were horrifying screams and the sounds of something being chewed, but Lian seemed to interpret them differently, grinning and commenting, “Haha, everyone’s so lively today!”
Now that she had to stick closely to Lian to avoid being crushed by the monsters, Iris maintained a tense expression as she clung even closer to him.
Just like before sleeping, Lian greeted many of the monsters, calling the blackened one “Professor,” as he entered a classroom that was even more wrecked than before.
“…”
Inside the classroom that was about to collapse, a single desk and chair remained intact. Lian sat down in his usual spot. With nowhere to sit, Iris had no choice but to stand behind him.
How much time passed like that?
Crack.
Crack.
Then came the clear sound of something breaking. Iris instinctively turned to look where the noise came from.
“…!”
One wall of the classroom seemed to be splitting apart, then it collapsed in ruins. Through the fallen wall, she caught a glimpse of a dried-up plant’s stalk. It was evident without thinking deeply that the shriveled plant had enveloped the building.
“What the heck… is going on?”
A sense of ominous dread, reminiscent of a deep, dark abyss, seemed to flow slowly through her body.
From the gaps in the fallen building, a serene silence seeped in.
It felt as if time was stretching unpleasantly, and the air became heavy and stifling. With every breath, the tension in her chest grew sharper. Thoughts of indescribable anxieties flickered in her mind, repeating their rise and fall.
Crack.
“…!”
This time, the sound wasn’t from the wall. It seemed to come from further away, behind the wall where light seeped in.
“Don’t tell me…”
Iris found herself overwhelmed by the distant scenery beyond the wall.
The sky, the earth, the buildings, everything alive was cracking like fragile glass, falling apart.
Before the unspeakable dread, Iris froze, barely managing to breathe.
‘No way… no way! Brother, brother!’
She emitted a scream that couldn’t find its voice and barely managed to turn her creaking body. Lian, sitting at the desk with a bright smile, was staring blankly at the crumbling wall.
‘No!’
In stark contrast to his calm face, Lian’s entire body was cracking, on the verge of collapsing at any moment. The horrifying reality of potentially losing Lian once again made Iris mentally scream, desperately reaching out towards him.
“…It’s beautiful.”
Lian softly murmured as he gazed at the crimson hue of the impending doom seeping in from beyond the fallen wall. The countless monsters surrounding him seemed petrified, unable to move under the oppressive weight of the ‘world’s end’.
Creak.
Lian rose effortlessly from his seat, as if he felt nothing of the overwhelming pressure of doom, and approached the crumbling wall.
He looked on blankly at the dying world. His fractured body began to fall apart, yet he seemed so absorbed by the crimson sky that he didn’t even register pain.
“…Haha!”
Lian smiled contently before starting to crumble into pieces. Slowly, like sensing the end, he looked down at his body and then turned to gaze at the other monsters collapsing just like him.
“I think I should head home early today. Hope everyone has a great day.”
The usual words he tacked on at the end, “See you tomorrow,” never came out. Along with Lian’s radiant smile, the world swiftly began to dissolve into dust as if it were reaching its complete end.
Just when Lian’s body was collapsing from his hands, shoulders, and legs, almost disappearing.
[ Found you. ]
“…!”
A voice so chilly it made her heart drop echoed inside Iris’s head. Simultaneously, a radiant white light poured in, feeling almost divine.
[ Hahaha! Yes, you… you can do it! ]
The once monotonous voice gradually swelled with mirth and madness, then turned into pure ecstasy. Iris widened her eyes to peek beyond the blinding light.
At that moment, a soft hand passed over her head and covered her eyes.
“That’s enough now.”
The gentle voice of a woman echoed in her ear, and at once, her vision blackened.
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