It was a corpse.
It was sprawled carelessly atop a pile of half-burnt books and the broken planks of a shattered bookshelf.
A longsword was still gripped in its hand, and it wore a uniform identical to the castle guards.
The joints were twisted as if the person had struggled until the very moment of death.
The face, dried out until only skin and bone remained, still held a vivid expression of agony.
“……A face.”
The corpse had a face.
Following the human-faced bird, this was the second living creature—or former living creature—he had encountered with a face.
Unlike the bloated human-faced bird, this body was parched like a mummy, leaving its facial features relatively intact.
Thanks to that, a prominent scar across the forehead was visible.
It was a member of Team 12, someone Seo Jaewon had seen in a photo during the dungeon briefing.
‘He was definitely an Electric-type, wasn’t he?’
If so, the branch-like scorch marks winding all over the area made sense.
When he shone his torch around, he could see fractal-shaped burn marks on the wooden bookshelves.
They were marks from lightning strikes.
Doubt preceded the shock.
‘Was there a battle?’
Here, all alone?
Where did the rest of the team go?
Even as he looked around the library again, he saw no sign of the other Team 12 members, nor any monster corpses.
There were only books scattered on the floor as if knocked down during a struggle, and overturned ladders and chairs.
‘It looks like he was fighting something and fled here.’
Judging by the sword still held tight and the traces of used abilities everywhere, the fight seemed to have continued here for a while.
But what on earth could he have been fighting to meet his end like this?
‘I’m sorry, I’m just going to take a quick look.’
Seo Jaewon apologized internally and examined the body more closely.
‘Only one noticeable external trauma.’
There was a stab wound on the top of the foot, right through the boot, from a longsword.
Judging by the shape, he had stabbed himself with his own weapon.
There were several other sword marks on the floor as well.
There wasn’t a single trace of an enemy; the only wounds on the corpse were from its own weapon.
Did he commit self-harm? Was it a mental-interference type monster?
But the record stated this Esper was B-rank.
Fundamentally, Espers are resistant to most mental manipulations.
High-ranking Espers even more so.
And suggestions that go against instinct, like self-harm, are the hardest to plant.
And there was something else strange.
Dark, abyss-like eye sockets.
When he tilted the corpse’s head, something glinted faintly inside.
‘What is this?’
Seo Jaewon cautiously inserted a finger into the corpse’s eye socket.
A tar-like, sticky mucus came away.
Now that he looked, the body was covered in clusters of this mysterious, thick black liquid.
It was similar to the black substance he saw on the human-faced bird, but its identity was unknown.
The liquid was also stuffed inside the corpse’s mouth.
When he rubbed it slightly between his fingers, he felt a very faint residue of energy.
It was different from an Esper using an ability, and quite different from the feel of the dungeon itself…
Click.
It was then that he heard a strange sound.
Looking back, he saw a book had fallen.
It seemed to have dropped from a shelf.
“A book?”
He hadn’t felt any tremors or earthquakes. So why did it fall?
He picked it up, but it seemed ordinary.
The letters on the spine felt oddly familiar, but on closer inspection, they were strange characters he couldn’t read.
He absentmindedly flipped a page.
A black stain smeared across the page he had turned to.
“……!”
When he flipped the book over, the back cover was covered in the same black mucus he had seen on the corpse.
It transferred to Seo Jaewon’s glove and then into the pages.
Seo Jaewon hurriedly looked at the shelf where he assumed the book had fallen from.
Black mucus was dripping from the gap where the book had been.
‘Drip, drop…’
Suddenly, the black mucus gushed out of the book-sized gap.
Soon, even more books began to be pushed out of their slots and fall.
The mucus surged forward, staining the shelves black, and began pouring onto the floor with a pattering sound.
‘A monster…?! No, something’s different.’
Alarms began to blare through every nerve in his body.
Something was approaching.
Something very terrifying.
Even the flame of his torch began to weaken and eventually started to flicker.
Every time it did, his vision surged with darkness.
A chilling energy was filling the library.
It was a massive, chaotic energy that couldn’t be compared to the tiny traces felt in the mucus.
A cold, sticky sensation seemed to cling to his skin.
The mucus that flowed onto the floor split into strands, raising their tips like antennae and stretching out in all directions.
As if the ambient darkness were melting and flowing, the mucus writhed and surged from everywhere his eyes landed.
Black lines and stains spread across the red carpet.
It moved restlessly, touching things here and there as if searching.
The way its tips twitched as if deciding on a direction reminded him of an animal catching a scent.
‘It’s looking for something.’
Seo Jaewon instinctively held his breath and froze.
His entire body went stiff with tension.
‘I must not touch that.’
Every nerve and sense he had was screaming it.
Before he could even move, the places left to stand were disappearing.
The darkness rushed in as if to snatch his ankles at any moment.
Seo Jaewon jumped onto a nearby desk that still looked clean to avoid the oncoming mucus.
“Joo Youngha! Don’t get off the sofa! There’s mucus on the floor!”
Splat—
The moment he shouted, something ice-cold dropped onto his cheek.
“……!”
It was the black mucus.
When he looked up, he saw it dripping from the ceiling as well.
No response came from Joo Youngha.
—SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!
Instead, a sound loud enough to tear his eardrums rang out.
“Ugh…!”
Seo Jaewon barely swallowed a scream and covered his ears.
But the roar didn’t stop.
It was strange to call it a sound.
It was more like a sensation.
Along with the deafening noise, all auditory stimuli were replaced by static that sounded like it was coming from a broken machine.
…It felt as if the emotions carried in that grotesque roar were crashing over him directly.
Screams, screams, hunger, ecstasy, and then screams of pain again.
‘Found you. Found you.’
‘Found you!’
As if resonating with it, the ground shook like an earthquake.
Thump! CRASH!
Finally, a wave of mucus swept in, devouring everything.
The desk he was standing on tilted and began to be swallowed by the black sludge.
“……!”
There was nowhere to run.
This is the end…!
At that moment, someone firmly caught Seo Jaewon’s back as he fell.
A cool hand covered his eyelids.
With a laugh like a sigh, Joo Youngha spoke.
“You shouldn’t go too far on your own, Jaewon.”
“Joo…!”
Before he could finish his sentence, Joo Youngha’s arms wrapped around him.
Just that alone made the cold, sticky air feel light again.
Joo Youngha pouted his lips for a moment.
“You should say ‘Youngha’.”
He could feel the surrounding energy moving according to Joo Youngha’s will.
It felt like the wind before a storm was supporting his back.
His mind went dizzy at the incomprehensibly massive and violent power.
It was a familiar, nostalgic, and absurdly reassuring sensation.
Even with his eyes closed, he could see bursts of light.
The energy was being consumed violently, creating multi-colored flames like opals.
A sudden sensation of falling hit him.
Fearing he might be separated from Joo Youngha, Seo Jaewon instinctively turned and hugged his neck tightly.
He felt the guy’s arms hug him back.
His body swayed this way and that, and a mysterious wind disheveled his hair.
It felt like being on a theme park ride with his eyes shut.
Even though his face was buried in Joo Youngha’s chest, it was so bright he couldn’t open his eyes.
Not long after, the scent of the forest mixed with the wind and hit him.
When Seo Jaewon opened his eyes, he was back in a familiar place.
“Is this… the forest from before?”
What on earth just happened? He was beyond confused; he was dazed.
“Joo Youngha, did you do this?!”
Joo Youngha stared at Seo Jaewon with a sulky face.
Seo Jaewon realized a moment too late that he was still clinging to Joo Youngha.
Even as he tried to pull his body back, the guy wouldn’t let go for some reason.
“Not Joo Youngha, call me Youngha…”
“That’s not what’s important right now! What happened just now?!”
At the scolding, Joo Youngha’s expression became even more dissatisfied.
Still, his answer was compliant.
“I folded space.”
“What?!”
Seo Jaewon’s eyes widened.
So, he meant he performed spatial teleportation?
It was the first time he had heard that such a thing could be done with psychokinesis.
Psychokinesis aside, no Esper should have been able to do this.
If others found out, it would cause an absolute uproar.
“You haven’t said a single word about being able to do this until now…”
Seo Jaewon was about to interrogate him but let his voice trail off.
The breath touching his forehead was somehow weak and unstable.
Joo Youngha stood with his eyes closed for an alarmingly long time, listening to Seo Jaewon’s voice with a pale face.
Then, as if his thin eyelids were heavy, he slowly opened his eyes. He looked somewhat displeased.
“Ugh… Jaewon finally hugged me, but…”
“Are—are you okay?”
Joo Youngha’s head slowly tilted and landed on Seo Jaewon’s shoulder.
There was no strength in the body that slumped against him.
Seo Jaewon stumbled, holding onto the unconscious, collapsed body.
“Youngha!”
