Chapter 25: The Price of Harmony

#25

“…!”

The world spun instantly. Han Yuseong’s face, wincing shut, also tilted precariously. Every sensation in his body was terrifyingly heightened.

His neck stiffened, making each breath a struggle. He couldn’t discern if the feeling surging to the crown of his head was pain or a searing heat.

Han Dokyeom gasped, raking his fingertips down Dagon’s back. It felt as if the entire area beneath his ear was being ripped away.

“Ha… don’t bite… Ugh, don’t… bite.”

Crunch!

The aggressively burrowing teeth tore through the wound. His eyes squeezed shut, and his entire body trembled uncontrollably.

Warm breaths were repeatedly suppressed to their limit within his throat before bursting forth. The slightest touch on his skin sent shivers of hypersensitivity through him.

Like a castaway who had starved for days, Dagon violently pressed his famished body against Han Dokyeom. With a rough tongue, he frantically licked and sucked at the flesh, exhaling ragged breaths.

If that didn’t satisfy him, he’d clamp his jaw around Han Dokyeom’s neck, biting so hard it felt like his bones might shatter, and then he would growl.

No matter how docile it pretended to be, a monster was still a monster. The mere whiff of blood immediately unleashed Dagon’s ferocious nature without reserve.

The crushing pressure around his neck made Han Dokyeom’s waist tremble uncontrollably.

He had used the skill several times, but it was insufficient to quell Dagon’s already unleashed savagery. Dagon selfishly drained Han Dokyeom’s mana to its very dregs.

Intoxicated by the mana, he drooled profusely as he bit the mark, his face hazy with pleasure. It was utterly vicious.

“Haa, ha… Gently… Good boy, gently…”

A tear traced an involuntary path down Han Dokyeom’s cheek. A thick, rasping tongue pressed cruelly against the pulsating vein beneath his ear.

His vision swam, then plunged into a suffocating darkness, as if every nerve had been crushed. The squelching sound of flesh being sucked grew distant in his ears.

His wide, unfocused pupils, staring into the void, slowly lost their luster.

Even as the world crumbled and faded around him, Han Dokyeom habitually murmured . His slowly closing eyes finally slumped onto Dagon’s shoulder, his head falling lifelessly.

Srrk!

As the hand that had been raking Dagon’s back fell limply, a glinting white blade once again appeared beneath Dagon’s neck.

“Get off.”

Han Yuseong warned, his voice low and clipped, as if chewing on the words. Dagon’s predatory actions ceased at that point.

His clear eyes, as he wiped the copious blood from his lips with the back of his hand, were intensely etched into Han Yuseong’s gaze.

Instead of the grotesque, murky eyes, his gaze was now like the deep sea, complemented by clear skin. His long, aquamarine hair framed a strong, masculine jawline and a high, sharp nose that commanded admiration.

Indeed, his overall features were simply inhumanly beautiful. The Dagon who had been disgustingly hideous was now transformed into a perfect, delicately crafted creation of a god. Everything about him was magnificent, enough to inspire awe.

Enough, perhaps, to utterly captivate a person.

****

Han Dokyeom wasn’t sure when he had fainted. When he opened his eyes, Han Yuseong was looking down at him with a complex expression.

He was wrapped in clothes presumed to be Han Yuseong’s.

Han Yuseong, silently observing, seemed like a detached spectator watching from beyond a boundary. It imbued him with an unapproachable air, almost as if he were wrestling with some troubling thoughts.

“Han Yuseong, why are you staring at me so intently? It’s unsettling.”

“I was debating whether to keep watching you, or to tie you up and restrain you,” came the immediate reply.

‘Oh, what pointless worries,’ Han Dokyeom thought. With an annoyed expression, he handed Han Yuseong his outer garment and massaged his stiff shoulder.

“Alright, so where’s our Agon?”

“…You’ve even named him already. Quite something, Han Dokyeom Hunter.”

“Han Yuseong, don’t be sarcastic; it doesn’t suit you. Are you starting to resemble Taeseongyeon?”

Gently massaging his shoulder muscles, Han Dokyeom touched the mark, feeling intact flesh beneath his fingertips, contrary to his memory of the devastation. His gaze dropped to an empty vial beside Han Yuseong.

It was likely a recovery potion.

Such potent recovery suggested an expensive potion. Just as he considered thanking him, a strangely familiar splashing sound reached his ears from behind.

Chwa-reuk!

It came from the blue hole. Han Dokyeom turned his head and glanced at the water’s surface. In the center of the rippling expanse, a man’s head bobbed like a canteen.

He was a man, and he had a large, vigorously flapping fish clamped in his mouth.

Han Dokyeom’s eyes widened faintly. Long hair swayed beneath the surface, like a falling waterfall. His eyes were like the sea, and his strong, masculine jawline and high, sharp nose were sharp enough to inspire admiration.

No, his overall features were simply inhumanly beautiful. He was excessively handsome, enough to make one’s mouth fall open.

‘This handsome bastard is our Agon?’

Even as Han Dokyeom stared, mesmerized, the man leaped out of the water, still clutching the live fish. His well-defined muscles conveyed vibrant vitality. He had a body like a silverfish.

Han Dokyeom’s slightly agape mouth closed abruptly as his gaze trailed down the trickling water running over the man’s rippling muscles.

“…Han Yuseong. Couldn’t you have given him some clothes?”

Dagon dropped the live fish before Han Dokyeom. He nudged it with the back of his hand as if to say ‘eat it’, then opened his mouth and made a metallic sound.

A quick glance revealed a monstrous-looking fish, like something from the deep sea. And it seemed to be laden with venom.

‘He’s not trying to kill me, is he?’

“…Uh, right, I get it. I’ll eat it later, so let’s get you dressed first.”

Han Dokyeom nudged the fish aside, then pulled out comfortable pants and a t-shirt from his inventory and offered them to Dagon. These were clothes he’d packed for just such an occasion.

“Clothes. You wear them like this. Clothes.”

Dagon frowned slightly, then reluctantly began putting on the clothes after Han Dokyeom demonstrated a few times. He growled at every touch, making it difficult to even get the pants on, even after a demonstration.

Only then did Dagon shed his primal appearance.

“So, what’s your plan now, Han Dokyeom, after your personal sacrifice? I’d like to hear your thoughts.”

Han Yuseong, who had been silently observing Dagon’s antics, asked in a chilling tone. His gaze toward Dagon was not kind, as if looking at a mere creature.

“What else?”

Han Dokyeom picked up a mana stone from a nearby pile and rolled it in his hand. Dagon’s gaze slowly followed it. Han Dokyeom stopped before Dagon.

He was a C-grade monster with the physique of a robust man two heads taller than Han Dokyeom.

Regrettably, the reason for saving Dagon was not out of generous goodwill. Dagon was merely a ‘means’ to an end.

Just as ‘Han Dokyeom’ was in the original story.

Han Dokyeom brought the mana stone to Dagon’s full, healthy lips. As his thoughts deepened, Dagon’s eyes grew darker.

“We must proceed as planned.”

If Dagon consumed all the accumulated mana stones within two days, he could at least reach A-grade. Of course, it would require immense luck.

To overcome rampage and mutation, to grow correctly, was as difficult as a sprout pushing through concrete. Yet, it was certainly not impossible.

Not if Han Dokyeom rolled up his sleeves and helped.

“From now on, we eat. Food.”

Han Dokyeom gazed deeply into Dagon’s aquamarine eyes, which stared down at him. Dagon knew Han Dokyeom was his benefactor.

Trust? Faith? It wasn’t that kind of emotion. What had formed deep within Dagon’s bones was greed and obsession. From the very beginning, Dagon’s gaze had been fixed on Han Dokyeom’s ‘mark’.

Dagon had likely been wondering when he could consume mana again, when he could indulge or perhaps even seize it. All Han Dokyeom needed to do was fulfill that desire.

“When you’ve eaten it all, I’ll give you this too.” Han Dokyeom tilted his head, tapping the mark as he whispered. Dagon’s Adam’s apple bobbed visibly. His blue eyes gleamed with ravenous hunger.

Dagon slowly opened his mouth and took the mana stone from Han Dokyeom’s lips. With teeth sharper than a human’s, he crushed and swallowed it in one gulp.

His downcast eyes seemed to bore into Han Dokyeom’s pupils.

Soon after the mana stone passed his throat, Dagon’s breathing grew ragged. His taut body became hot as a firebrand, as if he had swallowed molten lava.

Han Dokyeom gently sat Dagon down, who was panting heavily. He carefully stroked Dagon’s cheek.

Sweat beaded on his fiercely contorted nose bridge. Dagon tore at his chest, gasping and writhing in pain. Han Dokyeom’s pale hand softly, quietly patted his back.

‘‘

Raising Dagon to A-grade as quickly as possible was the only path to survival for everyone. Whether it was possible depended entirely on Dagon’s resolve.

If he wished to live, he would endure; if he couldn’t bear it, he would simply sink beneath the water.

The next two days would be a brutally long time for Dagon to endure.

****

was ‘Han Dokyeom’s’ unique skill. With this skill, ‘Han Dokyeom’ had endured for months within a Red Gate and emerged alive.

Driven by starvation, he’d scavenged corpses, acquiring . He then coincidentally touched a captain’s corpse, gaining , which he used while scavenging to tame Dagon, whom he’d discovered.

And when Dagon accidentally consumed a mana stone while eating the corpses of his own kind, ‘Han Dokyeom’s’ story truly began.

was such a skill: it made the incompatible compatible, rectified the twisted, and calmed the turbulent. Every imbalance was reborn as equilibrium within ‘Han Dokyeom’s’ hands.

Through this, ‘Han Dokyeom’ managed to exit the Red Gate, having subjugated an S-grade Dagon. He carried ‘Authority’ with him.