Chapter 96

Bubble. Bubble bubble.

Sizzle.

The cave, filled with magma, was utterly silent.

Beside the dark No Death, who lay sprawled atop the magma as if it were a bed, countless chunks of flesh floated about, like fragments of No Death’s corpse.

Just when it seemed he was getting used to it, the interval between deaths, which had been steadily growing longer, was cut in half, doubling the pace of his deaths.

‘Don’t look down on this trial. You have an undying body, so of course the trial would adjust to that, wouldn’t it?’

As the magma grew hotter and thicker, it slowly began planting the urge to surrender in No Death’s heart.

The time he had to open his eyes and find his bearings was now barely a second.

Several times, he died while doing nothing but flailing, unable to even figure out which way to go.

But that wasn’t the decisive reason he felt like giving up.

Smirk.

The sight of the goalpost moving, shattering his belief that he was getting closer and that the end was in sight, drew a smile from the dark No Death.

‘Did you think obtaining me would be easy?’

Bubble bubble. Sizzle.

‘Has he given up?’

The completely charred lump of flesh no longer moved.

The arms and legs that had thrashed about so desperately were nowhere to be seen.

No Death, who had been struggling to move even a little farther, had finally stopped.

‘My, the human heart is difficult and yet so simple, isn’t it? Give them a sense of futility, and they crumble this easily. Heh heh.’

Inside the magma, overflowing with crimson heat.

Just as the dark No Death had said, No Death had stopped moving.

The magma grew hotter, slowing his movements even more and quickening the cycle of his deaths.

It gave him no time for his vision to recover, and its viscosity was too thick to let him move his limbs.

But the moment he resolved to endure all of that.

The sight of the destination moving farther away was enough to instantly break No Death’s spirit.

‘Is this… the end…’

He thought he was almost there…

But when he opened his eyes, he realized it had all been his own delusion.

‘So this is what hell was like.’

It was filled with nothing but pain.

Now that he had given up on everything, the pain he thought he had grown used to…

…was now cracking not just his body, but his very soul.

An endless, unbroken agony…

If this wasn’t hell, what else could it be?

Bubble bubble.

Even as he gave up on everything and sank toward the deep bottom, the pain continued to sear No Death’s undying soul.

In the heart of a hell from which he could neither retreat nor advance.

‘It’s just… like back then.’

Along with his burning flesh, No Death’s eyes slowly closed.

= = =

How much time had passed?

His consciousness, which had been blown away by the massive explosion and the final violent shockwave, began to stir at the sound of someone’s voice.

– ‘….ake up! ….I said, wake up! ….You have to live. You have to live! For my sake, you have to! You have to live!’

Just hearing that voice made his heart ache.

Whose voice is this?

Who in the world is crying for me?

And who am I?

In a selfless state where he couldn’t even tell who he was.

– ‘Elina!’

The moment the owner of the voice came to mind, his shut eyes flew open.

– ‘Cough! Cough, cough!’

The sand filling his lungs spewed out with his coughs.

Beneath the blazing sun, the even hotter sand scorched his entire body.

But even while feeling all that pain, the name he had longed for so desperately came to Jang Bokdong like a gift and filled his vision.

– ‘Eli…na…’

– ‘Jang Bokdong! Hah, you’re awake… You’re really awake…’

He forced up his torso, which felt as heavy as a mountain.

Then he reached out and caressed Elina’s tear-streaked cheek.

How much had he missed her?

Was this what it felt like to be happy just by looking at someone’s face?

It was strange to realize he had developed such feelings for Elina, and yet he was happy just to be beside her.

But that feeling was fleeting.

It seemed not all his memories had returned yet. He was forgetting something, but he couldn’t remember what.

– ‘Mike! Where’s Mike?’

He remembered Mike, who had stayed behind to save him until the very end, even knowing the bombardment was coming.

He looked around.

But in the sand-buried desert, there was no sign of Mike, let alone the car they had arrived in.

The desert, so smothered in sand he couldn’t even tell where he was, was so desolate it felt as though he were adrift on the open sea.

– ‘Elina! Mike! Where’s Mike…’

It was then.

A sudden pain in his abdomen, accompanied by a splitting headache, made him grimace.

– ‘Ah…’

As his lost memories returned, the first thing he did was touch his side.

– ‘….!?’

What?

He couldn’t feel a wound, let alone pain.

It was strange.

He had clearly been pierced by an assault rifle bullet and had bled enough to count as a fatal injury.

It wasn’t the kind of wound that should have healed this easily.

– ‘Team Leader Jang…’

Elina, her face clouded as if she already knew, called out to Jang Bokdong.

Then, in tears, she pointed toward a patch of sand.

‘Hah…’

Only then did the red side mirror buried in the sand catch his eye.

The red side mirror.

Wasn’t that from the car Mike had driven to save him from the bombardment?

A bad feeling crept over him.

– ‘N-No! No!!’

The terrible thought he never should have had made Jang Bokdong claw frantically at the sand.

– ‘Jang Bokdong…’

Elina tried to stop him, but Jang Bokdong, unable to accept that Mike was dead, dug at the sand like a madman.

At last, he uncovered the vehicle’s side door, its window rolled all the way down.

He couldn’t believe it.

He had to see it with his own eyes.

How long did he dig?

In the end, he saw what he had never wanted to see.

Mike’s cold, lifeless face.

– ‘Ah…’

Thud.

As Jang Bokdong collapsed limply, Elina rushed over and held him.

– ‘What happened?’

– ‘There was nothing we could do. The car was sinking into the sand because of the sandstorm. We were lucky enough to wake up quickly, but you wouldn’t wake up, Jang Bokdong. So Mike used a [Potion] on you, used [Heal] to treat you, and was just about to get out of the car… but… but…’

– ‘But?’

– ‘But… Mike couldn’t get out.’

Mike’s position on the team was Healer.

As the Main Healer, he should have been the first one protected by the team, but Mike was both a Main Healer and a Battle Healer.

In other words, he was a Healer whose Stats were outstanding enough for combat.

– ‘There’s no way Mike couldn’t have pulled me out.’

– ‘I realized it while I was getting out. The driver’s seat and Mike’s body were both impaled by a large piece of metal…’

– ‘Then…’

– ‘He risked his life to save you.’

Mike’s actions as he tried to save him even while dying flickered before his eyes as if they were happening right there.

Jang Bokdong touched his side.

It had healed without leaving even a scar, with only a faint stabbing ache remaining.

– ‘That bastard… he knew he was going to die…’

There was only one way for a Healer to display such a near-impossible healing feat in that short amount of time.

He must have burned through all his Mana, even the Life Energy sustaining his own life.

– ‘Aah…’

He was someone Jang Bokdong had treated like a younger brother throughout his long years as a mercenary abroad.

They had crossed the line between life and death together so many times that they had become closer than family.

– ‘I have to get up… Ugh!’

The fact that he had survived by burning through Mike’s life crushed Jang Bokdong so completely that even when Elina pulled at him with all her strength, he wouldn’t rise.

– ‘Jang Bokdong!’

– ‘Mike is dead…’

– ‘You have to get up! We can’t stay here like this! Ugh!’

Elina used every last bit of strength she had, trying to drag the dazed Jang Bokdong away.

But it was impossible for Elina, who had never exercised a day in her life, to drag him.

– ‘Get a grip!’

Smack!

– ‘Ah…’

Elina’s palm cracked across Jang Bokdong’s cheek hard enough to snap his head to the side.

That moment of clarity finally made Jang Bokdong look at Elina instead of Mike.

– ‘Your life isn’t just yours anymore! Do you think this is why Mike died for you!?’

– ‘Elina…’

– ‘Mike gave his life to save you. His life is on your shoulders now too! So get a grip and walk! Walk, now!!’

Elina screamed at the top of her lungs.

– ‘Mike’s life…?’

– ‘Yes. If we stay here, then everything Mike did will be for nothing. Are you really going to throw away his courageous sacrifice like that? Jang Bokdong, is that the kind of person you’ve always been!?’

The fierce wind began burying Mike’s face in sand again, even though he had only just uncovered it.

Jang Bokdong silently watched Mike’s face sink deeper and deeper into the sand.

– ‘Jang Bokdong!’

At Elina’s final cry, Mike disappeared completely beneath the sand.

Squeeze!

Jang Bokdong clenched his fists tightly, and sand trickled out from between his fingers.

Then he looked at Elina.

‘I can’t let that happen.’

Pushing off the ground with both hands, he rose fully to his feet.

As Jang Bokdong stood firmly atop the sand, life returned to his eyes once more.

– ‘Jang Bokdong…’

Only then did the look in his eyes return, like the cold flame Elina loved.

– ‘Thank you. And I’m sorry.’

It was the same gaze that had breathed life back into Elina when she had been longing for death.

Swoosh.

Jang Bokdong’s eyes, which had been on Elina, turned toward the distant desert ridge.

Then the sound of a vehicle’s exhaust reached them.

Vroom! Vrooom!

– ‘Jang Bokdong!’

– ‘I hear it.’

The reason Elina had been so desperately trying to pull Jang Bokdong away from this place was now rushing toward them in sound.

And fast.

– ‘Elina.’

Grab!

Fully lucid now, Jang Bokdong grabbed Elina’s hand tightly.

– ‘Run!’

He took the lead and pulled Elina with him as they began crossing the vast, sea-like desert together.

= = =

There was a reason the desert was called a barren land where neither people nor plants could survive.

They barely escaped the pursuit of unknown enemies, and just when they finally got away from the oppressive, heavy heat, night fell.

They say the desert heat kills people.

No, that was something only people who had never truly experienced the desert would say.

Shiver shiver shiver.

The truly terrifying thing about the desert wasn’t the heat that felt like it would burn your whole body away, nor the freezing cold that came with the night.

It was the extreme difference between day and night temperatures that drove people mad.

– ‘Jang Bokdong, are you okay?’

Elina approached the shivering Jang Bokdong, smiled brightly, and held out the clothes she was wearing.

– ‘No, you wear it, Elina.’

It was the jacket Jang Bokdong had taken off for her when the nighttime cold proved harsher than expected.

But Elina shook her head and insisted on returning it.

– ‘I’m from Al-Quds. I’m more used to the desert’s temperature changes than you are.’

The desert at night wasn’t as dark as one might think.

If not for the cold, he might have thought moonlight had never been this bright before.

It seemed Elina was also relieved that, at some point, the exhaust sounds of their pursuers had faded away.

– ‘Jang Bokdong!’

Elina sprang up from where she had been sitting, grabbed Jang Bokdong’s hand, and tugged.

‘We need to rest for now.’

– ‘Come on~ Just get up for a second.’

– ‘Honestly.’

His tone sounded reluctant, but his lips were curled into a smile.

As he stood, pretending to give in, Elina suddenly took his hand and started running across the desert.

How far did they run?

Elina, darting around the vast desert as if it were her own room, suddenly threw herself down and spread out on the sand.

Jang Bokdong naturally lay down beside her.

Then, in that moment, Elina turned and climbed on top of him.

– ‘Jang Bokdong!’

– ‘Ah…’

Bathed in moonlight, Elina’s face looked more beautiful than ever, and the smile she gave him was lovelier than anything he had ever seen.

– ‘I love you.’

Who could possibly dislike this?

With a face no man could resist smiling back at, she whispered words of love.

Nothing had changed about their grim situation, where there was no guarantee either of them would survive.

But that beautiful smile was enough to make even Jang Bokdong, who had long led his team with survival alone as the goal, lower his guard and finally smile back.

Peck.

What began as a light kiss soon deepened, their lips searching for each other as the air between them grew hotter still.

It would have made for a beautiful story, if only it could have ended in happiness.

But everyone already knows, don’t they?

That this beautiful love ends in tragedy.

– ‘I think I found them.’

At that moment, while the two shared their brief happiness.

From atop a high sand dune, among six parked vehicles, a man was watching Jang Bokdong and Elina through a pair of binoculars.

All he could make out were dark silhouettes, but it was obvious who would be out here in the desert at this hour.

‘What are your orders?’

The man with the binoculars, asking as if by routine, glanced to the side.

Standing there beside him, leading more than ten others, was a familiar face.

– ‘What do you think…’

It was none other than Gani Habah, looking perfectly fine as he ground his teeth and shouted.

– ‘Kill the man, and bring me the woman.’

– ‘I’ll get them at once.’

Vroom!

The exhaust roared violently, and Gani Habah yelled,

– ‘I won’t make the same mistake again… This time, I will definitely take [System’s Blessing].’