How long had they been standing like that? Just when the warmth filling both arms began to feel familiar, as if it were his own, a heavy weight suddenly dropped onto his shoulder. Cha Eui-jae turned his head. Amid the sweet scent, there was a faint sll of blood. It was Sa-young's.
"What? What's wrong?"
"...Ah."
"Sa-young?"
"I can't hold on anymore..."
With that last murmur, which sounded almost like a complaint, Sa-young's full weight pressed onto Cha Eui-jae's body. The arms that had been wrapped around his waist slowly slipped away.
'What the...?'
He could hear the soft, steady sound of breathing near his ear. With a bewildered expression, Cha Eui-jae supported Sa-young's waist with his arms.
"Wait, is he seriously asleep right now?"
"Hmm... I guess he's finally run out of stamina."
Lee Sa-young mumbled as he stood up. Cha Eui-jae adjusted his hold on the limp Sa-young. With an inscrutable look in his light purple eyes, Lee Sa-young's gaze flicked between Cha Eui-jae and the unconscious Sa-young. He tilted his head slightly.
"We were in a power struggle... and him."
"What?"
"Still, he lasted quite a while. For a twenty-four-year-old with only half a soul."
Cha Eui-jae's eyes widened. So, they weren't just arguing verbally, but also fighting over territory? He couldn't hide his disbelief as he asked,
"Can't you two just get along?"
"Get along?"
Lee Sa-young covered his mouth with his fist. The corners of his lips twitched upwards, as if amused.
"Isn't this close enough to getting along?"
"Why is your idea of 'getting along' so ssed up?"
Cha Eui-jae snapped. The Sa-young in his arms let out a small groan. Damn it. As he looked worriedly at Sa-young's face, a thought occurred to him. Wait, isn't this an opportunity? No one would know the second world as well as this guy. Cha Eui-jae quickly spoke up.
"By the way, do you know Protheus?"
Lee Sa-young blinked his light purple eyes.
"Protheus?"
"Yeah. They aim to awaken through human strength, not through the system's selection. Ever heard of them?"
"Quite grand..."
Lee Sa-young gazed into the air as if in deep thought for a mont before shaking his head. His reply was simple.
"No, never heard of them. This is the first ti I'm hearing the na... or that such a group existed."
"Are you sure? You weren't experinted on or anything? Did you just awaken naturally?"
"Experint?"
Lee Sa-young shook his head firmly.
"No way. What I received was treatnt. To detoxify poison..."
"..."
"That's when I awakened. And that's it."
Cha Eui-jae saved Lee Sa-young. In the first world, the second world, and the third world. That was an unchanging, immutable fact. But things had gone a little off track after that. Especially now, in this world, things were the most different. The biggest difference was probably...
'The West Sea rift.'
And Cha Eui-jae's absence.
After a mont's hesitation, Cha Eui-jae asked,
"Do you know anything about eroding dungeons? The phenonon where dungeons start to take the form of a destroyed world."
"I'm not sure what it is exactly, but I can guess. Even if we tried to block them, there were bound to be a few gaps that couldn't be sealed."
"..."
"My world and yours have the sa origin. Originally, my world should have been destroyed and rged with yours..."
Lee Sa-young made a small flicking motion in the air with his finger, and a black mass appeared. The black mass started to turn white from the edges. Just before it completely turned white, Lee Sa-young drew his finger across it. The mass split into two: one white and one black.
"But that didn't happen. The clock wasn't intact. Because of so hack of a creator."
For a brief mont, a vision of Hong Ye-seong, with his brown hair tied up in a ponytail, waving his hands wildly, flashed through Cha Eui-jae's mind before disappearing. So did the shout of 'Friend~' and the vision of him flapping his wings in frustration in the form of a chicken.
'That guy was bragging that the restoration was this good because it was him.'
That probably was the truth. Cha Eui-jae had a gut feeling it was. No matter how crazy the guy seed, he had solid skills. Cha Eui-jae glanced at Lee Sa-young. Maybe it was because he'd been alone for so long, or maybe it was because of his lack of social skills. Either way, Lee Sa-young's ability to read people was definitely skewed...
anwhile, Lee Sa-young lowered his dark hand.
"Watch carefully."
The two divided masses floated in the air, maintaining so distance. But soon enough, the space between them began to shrink. As if they were about to rge into one again. As if returning to their origin. Eventually, the point where they t turned gray.
"..."
His bangs fell over his eyes, obscuring his view. The color of his hair...
Gray.
Unconsciously, Cha Eui-jae started fiddling with his own hair. The masses were gradually sticking together, becoming one. The black was slowly turning white. Lee Sa-young watched the process with emotionless eyes and spoke.
"When the origins are the sa, they are bound to be drawn to each other. It's a primal desire... a basic instinct to return to the original form."
His light purple gaze landed on the sleeping Sa-young.
"Just like how the from my world crossed over into your world using the body of another ."
"..."
"It's sothing like that. I tried to block the connections as much as possible... but there were still flows that remained linked. Especially dungeons or rifts, which are like cracks. It was probably easy for them to form."
Lee Sa-young ran a hand through his hair. Cha Eui-jae saw it then— his dark hand was becoming faintly transparent. His heart sank.
'Is he disappearing?'
Before Cha Eui-jae could say anything, Lee Sa-young spoke first, as if he knew exactly what Cha Eui-jae was going to say. His voice was indifferent.
"I wasn't planning on staying long anyway. Even though the other was desperately trying to co after , I just... acted a bit petty."
Petty? Petty?!
If he acted petty twice, soone could die. Cha Eui-jae could vividly recall the image of soone tearfully clinging to him, crying uncontrollably, not out of choice. After a brief hesitation, Cha Eui-jae gestured as if he were about to choke him and asked,
"...Was that part of it too?"
"Oh, are you still hung up on that?"
Lee Sa-young's expression twisted slightly, as if he were laughing.
"When you tried choking ... it made realize that I was in a living body. I didn't an to."
"..."
"And I wanted to ss with you a little too. It was fun. Watching you go wild was kind of refreshing."
"Am I at? Refreshing?"
"The Cha Eui-jae I rember... well. Most of the ti, you were either bedridden or throwing a blanket over yourself."
Damn. He knew how to push the right buttons. Cha Eui-jae looked away, unable to refute him. Still, he couldn't stop himself from grumbling.
"Why did you ss with ? Don't you know how to repay a favor...?"
"Why? Because you left behind and went off on your own."
The unexpectedly sharp response startled Cha Eui-jae. He quickly ca to a conclusion. The longer he talked to this guy, the worse it would be for him. He couldn't win. Not when the guy was using a dead person as a shield. Of course, even with the Sa-young asleep in his arms, he hadn't won that many argunts either.
Lee Sa-young tapped his cheek with a finger and muttered,
"To begin with... it wasn't supposed to happen. having a self-consciousness. Things went off track a bit."
"Why?"
"The original plan was for to rge into the other 's body. Under normal circumstances, I wouldn't have even realized I had rged, and we would've just beco one. But... sothing went wrong, and we didn't rge."
The day Cha Eui-jae drove a spear into the body of a whale, Sa-young had collapsed unconscious. Hong Ye-seong... Cha Eui-jae mumbled.
"Hong Ye-seong said it was because your soul was too big. If you forced the rge, your body wouldn't have been able to handle it."
"Hmm... That hack's good at guessing, despite being a quack."
Lee Sa-young shrugged, dismissing Hong Ye-seong's words like it was the most natural thing in the world.
"Thanks to that, we're facing each other like this now."
"..."
When coincidences keep happening, it's called fate, they say. Perhaps this mont too, where they were facing each other like this, was destiny. Cha Eui-jae stared into the light purple eyes. In those eyes, Cha Eui-jae was reflected perfectly.
But the Cha Eui-jae that Lee Sa-young had loved was probably different from him. A version that collapsed every ti he used his strength, swallowed his blood alone so as not to cause worry, and yet saved people despite it all...
The Cha Eui-jae that Lee Sa-young loved.
Cha Eui-jae hugged Sa-young, who was in his arms, a little tighter.
"Lee Sa-young."
"..."
The violet eyes blinked. Once again, words that were his, yet not entirely his, flowed out.
"I'm sorry. I feel like I've burdened you with sothing too heavy."
"..."
"But... all of it wasn't aningless."
The eyes widened slightly. Cha Eui-jae slowly blinked, opening and closing his eyes. For a mont, it felt like voices overlapped. A smile naturally crept onto his lips.
"Because here we are, looking at each other like this."
"..."
"Thank you."
A faint light flickered in the otherwise blank violet eyes. Lee Sa-young slowly lowered his head. Soon, his black hair gave a small nod. Phew, Cha Eui-jae let out a soft sigh. The other version of him had vanished quickly, as if he had never been there.
In place of him, Cha Eui-jae stretched out his hand and tousled the hair that had lowered to just the right height to be patted. Wide shoulders shrunk slightly.
After patting for a while, Lee Sa-young, with his now disheveled hair, slowly lifted his head. The sight was rather amusing. As he fixed his hair with his black hands, he spoke.
"The end... it cos when it hears soone call for it."
"..."
Cha Eui-jae's eyes widened. Was he seriously talking about the end now? Out of the blue? Lee Sa-young tilted his head and asked.
"Why are you reacting like that... Weren't you curious? Isn't that why you ca all this way?"
"Well, yeah, but... you're telling now?"
"Just listen and don't respond."
He took off his black coat and twirled it in the air. Soon, the surroundings were engulfed by pitch-black walls. In the darkness, he raised his black index finger to his lips.
"The more you think about it, the more you talk about it, the more you say it out loud... the faster it will co."
In an eerie voice, he muttered.
"You should be careful. Because you can't stop people's thoughts and words."
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