Honbul: Flame of the Soul

“So it really was because of you?”

“What was?”

“The reason I don’t die or age.”

Jaegyeom waited anxiously for the boy’s answer.

“....”

But the boy, who had answered every question so readily until now, suddenly fell silent.

As if debating whether or not he should tell the truth, he stared at Jaegyeom with an unreadable expression for a while. Then he abruptly wandered over to the jars, pretending to distract himself.

“Huh? What’s with him all of a sudden?”

Peering into Hwagyeong as though nothing had happened, the boy casually changed the subject.

“Looks like he’s about to drown himself in the ocean.”

“What?”

Jaegyeom gasped.

Reflected within the mirror was Yoon Taehee’s back as he staggered toward the roaring shoreline. One glance was enough to tell he looked dangerously unstable, and his entire body was drenched in blood.

Only then did Jaegyeom remember.

After descending deep into the abyss and separating from reality, he had momentarily forgotten that he had left Yoon Taehee alone to face the merfolk.

It had felt as though he had spent an eternity talking with the boy inside the abyss. But in reality, almost no time had passed at all.

Jaegyeom unconsciously pressed a hand against his chest.

He had written a water-repelling talisman for Yoon Taehee and taken the attack himself instead. His chest had definitely been pierced through.

“I-I need to go.”

He abruptly lifted his head, expression hardening.

There were still countless things he wanted to ask about the God of Calamity, but Yoon Taehee was in immediate danger. Everything else could wait.

“How do I get out of here and go back?”

“You can’t go back right now.”

“What?”

Jaegyeom faltered.

“What do you mean?”

“You won’t be opening your eyes for a while.”

The boy answered indifferently while continuing to peer into the jars.

“You got hurt too badly this time.”

At present, Jaegyeom’s condition was even worse than the times he lost consciousness after a rampage.

Based on past experience, once he blacked out after rampaging, he could remain unconscious for days, sometimes even weeks. During those periods, when he hovered on the edge of death from the backlash, even Mesan’s healing abilities had been useless.

There was no way to know how long it would take before he woke naturally.

Right now, Jaegyeom’s body was nothing more than a vessel containing the God of Calamity.

And this was the first time he had ever descended this deeply and met the boy face-to-face.

It meant his life force had weakened to an unprecedented degree.

No one could say when he would wake up again.

“Then what am I supposed to do now?”

Time was running out.

From what he had seen in Hwagyeong, Yoon Taehee was alone against the merfolk. The thought that something terrible might happen to him filled Jaegyeom with dread.

And if he truly remained unconscious for months, all of their future plans would collapse.

“There’s nothing you can do. You just have to wait until you wake up naturally.”

“There’s really no other way?”

At that question, the boy rolled his eyes for a moment.

“Well... it’s not like there’s absolutely no way.”

“What is it?”

The boy suddenly fell silent and stared directly at Jaegyeom.

“Give me your body.”

***

Yoon Taehee vomited violently while clinging to the cliffside.

Even after emptying his stomach completely, the nausea would not stop. His entire body rejected the unbearable reality before him.

For some reason, he could not breathe.

It felt ★ 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ★ as though an invisible hand were strangling him.

Only after vomiting up bitter stomach acid did the retching finally subside.

A piercing ringing filled his ears.

His vision swam.

“....”

Jaegyeom, eyes wide open yet utterly unfocused, hung limp like a drenched rag doll.

“Jaegyeom.”

Aside from the crashing rain and thunderous waves, the world was silent.

Yoon Taehee pressed his cheek against Jaegyeom’s and called his name over and over, but Jaegyeom did not move.

“....”

A gust of cold wind swept past, carrying icy rain with it.

Yoon Taehee lowered his head for a long moment before letting out a quiet laugh, like someone who had finally found an answer.

“You’re not dead.”

No.

“You can’t die.”

Staring blankly up at the sky, he denied reality outright.

He had never wanted this.

Burying his face against Jaegyeom’s nape, Yoon Taehee inhaled sharply and gripped his shoulders tightly.

“I’ll save you.”

His hands had gone deathly pale from the force of his grip, veins and bones standing out sharply.

“And if I can’t...”

Yoon Taehee whispered softly into Jaegyeom’s ear.

“I’ll die too.”

Jaegyeom.

You can’t go anywhere...

At a glance, Yoon Taehee looked completely out of his mind. He seemed unaware of what he was even saying.

He held the blood-soaked Jaegyeom so tightly it almost looked painful.

Meanwhile, far out at sea, the merfolk watched the situation from a distance.

But Yoon Taehee did not notice them.

No—he had no room left to notice anything at all.

...What’s happening?

The merfolk who sensed something strange exchanged glances beneath the water.

Until moments ago, they had clearly sensed two presences. But after the young-looking human had been stabbed through the chest, his presence vanished completely.

The merfolk hiding deep offshore narrowed their eyes.

That one doesn’t seem human either, but he’s stopped breathing.

Didn’t they say he had a body that neither dies nor ages?

No matter how you look at it, only one of them is still alive.

According to the information Shin Jihye provided, the youthful-looking human possessed an immortal body.

Yet his breathing had unmistakably stopped.

They could not understand what had happened.

But one thing was certain.

Only one human remained standing.

Then what do we do now?

The merfolk exchanged looks again.

Kill the remaining one too.

They had never intended to let either Jaegyeom or Taehee survive.

From the beginning, they had planned to eliminate both of them.

For a long time, the merfolk had hidden themselves away, erasing every trace of their existence in order to sever ties with the human world completely. Yet these two humans had directly witnessed the reality of beings that humanity had nearly forgotten, buried beneath old folklore and fading stories.

Worse, they had discovered the merfolk’s base.

They could not be allowed to live.

Potential threats had to be erased before they became disasters.

If the existence of the merfolk became known to the world, there was no telling when the tragedies of the past might repeat themselves.

Now that the more troublesome opponent seemed dead, the remaining human should be easy to handle.

Even if sacrifices were necessary, they could not let this opportunity pass.

At last, the merfolk who had been holding their breath began to move again.

Yoon Taehee, kneeling with Jaegyeom in his arms and his eyes closed, looked completely defenseless.

A school of silver flying fish burst from the ocean surface, stirring the sea into a massive whirlpool.

The fish shot into the air and surrounded Yoon Taehee from all directions.

The instant they charged—

Yoon Taehee irritably flicked one hand.

He never even looked back.

It was pure reflex. His senses, already spread wide open, reacted before conscious thought could.

The school of flying fish slicing through the air like blades scattered helplessly under the violent gust unleashed by his ghostly force.

At the same moment, Yoon Taehee slowly lifted his head from where it had rested against Jaegyeom’s neck.

His unfocused gaze drifted across the distant sea before stopping somewhere nearby.

A flying fish that had been knocked to the ground was writhing weakly, mouth opening and closing.

“Right.”

Yoon Taehee’s eyes fixed on the dagger lodged through Jaegyeom’s chest.

“You killed him.”

“Paehyeon.”

Staggering to his feet, Yoon Taehee picked something up from the ground nearby.

It was the umbrella he and Jaegyeom had shared when they left the house together.

The umbrella had been flipped inside out and ruined.

Yoon Taehee stepped on it carelessly, snapping the shaft apart with a sharp crack before gripping it in his hand.

“Sword God. Drink blood.”

The moment the words left his mouth, black smoke seeped out from somewhere unseen and wrapped around the broken umbrella shaft.

The crude fragment instantly transformed into a sword capable of cutting through anything.

But even after summoning Paehyeon, there was no excitement in Yoon Taehee’s eyes as he looked at the makeshift blade.

No fighting spirit.

Only a bottomless, eerie madness.

The eyes of someone who had already lost everything.

No thoughts remained in his head anymore.

Only the insane urge to slaughter every merfolk in that sea.

Yoon Taehee turned toward the dark, raging ocean.

At the same time, an enormous pillar of water erupted upward.

A water dragon summoned by the merfolk.

Yet even at the sight of it, Yoon Taehee showed no reaction at all.

He looked utterly resigned.

Dragging the sword-tip along the ground, he slowly walked toward the sea, directly facing the water dragon head-on.

Then—

Something flashed past Yoon Taehee’s ear.

A streak of light barely grazed him. 𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚

“Are you trying to drown yourself?”

Yoon Taehee stopped.

The moment he saw the arrow embedded squarely in the water dragon’s forehead, his eyes widened slowly.

He turned around stiffly.

And what Yoon Taehee saw—

Was Jaegyeom standing amid a raging crimson storm.