Honbul: Flame of the Soul

“Is there no other way?”

At Jaegyeom’s question, the boy rolled his eyes for a moment.

“Well, it’s not like there’s absolutely no other option.”

“What is it?”

“Give me your body.”

Jaegyeom hesitated and stared at the boy.

“Give you my body... What do you mean?”

“I’ll become the owner of your body for a little while.”

Owner of the body.

Jaegyeom’s eyes widened.

“Then your wounds will heal quickly.”

The proposal itself made sense.

A body owner usually referred to a divine spirit dwelling inside a human body, and such beings tended to exert overwhelming influence over their vessels. There were many cases where people who had ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) suffered from illness for years suddenly recovered after receiving divine possession. It was possible because of the power possessed by the body owner itself.

Not only that, but bodies possessed by spirits could walk barefoot over razor-sharp blades or endure knife wounds without injury. That was possible because it belonged to the realm of divinity. Though the shell was human, a god resided within it.

“So? Will you let me help you or not?”

The boy looked at Jaegyeom directly as he asked.

It certainly sounded plausible. Even so, Jaegyeom could not make the decision easily. More than anything, instinct screamed at him that surrendering his body was dangerous.

Because the being before him was an evil god.

“What’s your reason?”

Jaegyeom kept his expression indifferent as he questioned him.

“Hm? What do you mean?”

“Why do you want to help me?”

“Because I want to.”

“But why?”

The boy stared at him blankly, as though he genuinely could not understand why the question even needed to be asked.

“Because I’m on your side.”

The answer was simple and straightforward.

Jaegyeom’s expression turned slightly strange. He carefully studied the boy’s face, searching for some hidden motive, but the boy looked utterly sincere.

The boy clearly held deep affection for Jaegyeom, his vessel.

“I told you before. Now that you’ve entered this place, you only have two choices. You can stay here forever with me, or you can leave together with me.”

The boy scratched his cheek absentmindedly.

“You and I can’t be separated. You are you, and I am me, but at the same time, we are one. That’s why I’m helping you.”

Then he added:

“And you broke the seal for me.”

The boy sealed inside Jaegyeom had spent a very long time trapped in the depths of the abyss.

This place was a prison without bars. The only place he had been allowed to move around in was the tiny thatched house and its yard.

But Jaegyeom had torn away the sacred rope and shattered the seal. He had freed the boy from shackles that had bound him for ages.

While the seal remained intact, using his original power had been impossible.

Now it was not.

“I can help you, so I am. If you don’t want it, then refuse.”

The offer was pure in the way only a child’s could be. There was not the slightest trace of ulterior motive in it.

“I’ll heal your body and step back afterward.”

After a brief hesitation, Jaegyeom finally nodded.

“...Alright.”

A part of him still wondered whether the boy might be deceiving him, but he no longer believed that was the case. In truth, just like the boy, Jaegyeom could not help feeling attached to the existence that resembled another self.

Of course, after learning the boy was a god of calamity, fear and wariness still lingered inside him.

But right now, he could not even move his own body properly.

And Yoon Taehee was outside alone in a dangerous situation.

There was no time.

There was no other choice.

“So what do I have to do?”

Suppressing his unease as much as possible, Jaegyeom asked.

“There needs to be a condition.”

“A condition?”

“You can’t just hand over control of your body for free.”

Now that the seal had been broken, two consciousnesses existed inside Jaegyeom’s body: Jaegyeom’s and the boy’s.

At present, however, Jaegyeom held control.

His consciousness was dominant.

The boy had slept for too long, and his power was heavily suppressed.

Because of that, in order to transfer ownership of the body, they needed to establish which consciousness would take precedence. Since the boy was currently weaker and suppressed beneath Jaegyeom’s consciousness, there had to be some kind of condition — a transaction through which Jaegyeom would hand over control.

“So what do we do?”

“We make a bet. The condition is ownership of the body.”

“A bet?”

“Yes. Whoever wins gets control.”

“So I just have to lose on purpose?”

“That’s right.”

“Fine. Let’s do it quickly.”

Jaegyeom nodded immediately.

The boy truly did seem to want to help him. If that was the case, then Jaegyeom intended to make full use of it.

“Hm. What should we bet on?”

The boy fell into thought.

Growing impatient, Jaegyeom spoke first.

“Hey. We don’t have time for this. Let’s just arm wrestle.”

“Oh, that sounds good.”

The boy clapped excitedly.

Arm wrestling would make it easy to lose deliberately, and more importantly, it would end quickly.

Without another word, Jaegyeom and the boy clasped hands.

“I’m supposed to lose on purpose, right?”

Jaegyeom asked one last time as he took position.

The boy nodded.

For a brief moment, the two stared into each other’s eyes with their hands tightly locked together.

The boy signaled the start with his gaze.

At the same time, Jaegyeom slowly relaxed his strength.

His arm was pushed down effortlessly by the boy’s force. The back of his hand struck the floor with a dull thud.

“I win.”

Even though the outcome had been staged from the beginning, the boy looked strangely delighted.

He really did have childish sides to him.

Why is he that happy over this?

He was frighteningly honest with his emotions.

As Jaegyeom stared at him with an increasingly odd expression, the boy spoke again.

“Say it out loud. Say you lost to me.”

For now, Jaegyeom did exactly as instructed.

“I lost to you.”

At that instant, the boy abruptly tightened his grip around Jaegyeom’s hand.

CRACK.

The force was strong enough to crush bone.

The surge in power was immediate and overwhelming.

Jaegyeom’s expression stiffened slightly.

“Good.”

The boy yanked on their clasped hands and spoke in a low voice.

“I shall protect you.”

Then he smiled.

“And I shall bring calamity upon this world.”

After that, everything went dark.

***

What Yoon Taehee saw was Jaegyeom standing in the middle of a crimson storm with a bow in his hand.

“...Are you trying to drown yourself?”

Yoon Taehee’s eyes widened slowly as he looked at Jaegyeom.

It was impossible to believe, even while seeing it with his own eyes.

Just moments ago, Jaegyeom had been lying motionless on the ground like a corpse.

Now he was standing on his own two feet.

Only the whites of his eyes were visible.

Bloody tears streamed down from those gleaming white eyes, making him look grotesque and eerie beyond words.

He resembled a ghost far more than a human being.

“How are you...”

Yoon Taehee muttered blankly.

Red spiritual force swirled violently around Jaegyeom like a storm.

His hair, stiff with dried blood, whipped wildly through the air.

The heart that had been pierced by the dagger began healing instantly.

The same thing happened to the arm he had slashed open to draw out the bow.

The wound deep enough to expose bone sealed itself shut as fresh flesh regenerated.

It was grotesque.

Repulsive.

“W-What is this...?”

The mermaids watching nearby wore the same expressions of shock.

The water dragon had vanished completely.

Originally, physical attacks should not have worked on it. Even if struck, its body should have dissolved into water before reforming again.

But the arrow wrapped in red spiritual force had pierced straight through the center of its forehead—

and the water dragon had vaporized without leaving behind even a trace.

The spell itself had been erased.

Endless red spiritual force continued pouring from Jaegyeom’s body.

The dense energy spread in every direction like thick sea fog.

It was violent, destructive force that made skin crawl on contact.

Then Jaegyeom casually tossed the bow aside and began walking toward Yoon Taehee.

“Stay still.”

His voice was indifferent.

“And don’t do anything stupid.”

He brushed past Yoon Taehee as though nothing had happened.

“...What?”

Yoon Taehee stared at him with wide eyes.

He could not understand what he was seeing.

A moment ago, Jaegyeom had stopped breathing.

He had been dead.

But now he was walking around as though nothing had happened at all.

Was this an illusion?

Still dazed, Yoon Taehee slowly turned toward him.

“What exactly are y—”

The moment Yoon Taehee reached out, about to grab him—

“...Jaegyeom.”

—Jaegyeom vanished.

He disappeared instantly.

The speed was far beyond what human eyes could follow.

“Jaegyeom—!”

Startled, Yoon Taehee whipped his head around.

He had lost track of Jaegyeom’s movements in the blink of an eye.

Where did he go?

Flustered, Yoon Taehee hurriedly scanned his surroundings, but the dense red spiritual force spreading everywhere like sea fog obscured his vision completely.

Then—

Yoon Taehee abruptly sensed Jaegyeom’s presence.

His eyes widened.

Far out across the sea, Jaegyeom stood atop the water itself.

Something dangled from one of his hands.

No—

someone.

A merperson.

“...What the hell?”

Yoon Taehee muttered blankly.

Jaegyeom had the mermaid gripped by the throat with one hand.

The mermaid thrashed wildly like a fish caught on a hook, clawing desperately at Jaegyeom’s wrist, but it was useless.

“Kgh... hk...”

The skin trapped beneath Jaegyeom’s grasp began turning black.

The mermaid let out a scream filled with agony—

then suddenly went limp.

Its body shriveled instantly into something resembling a dried corpse.

The blackened figure looked horrifying.

It had all happened in the blink of an eye.

Jaegyeom casually flung the corpse aside.

The shriveled mermaid splashed into the sea.

The gesture was careless, indifferent. Like tossing away a broken branch.

And in that instant, Yoon Taehee realized it.

That thing—

was not Jaegyeom.