Chapter 110: The One Who Came From Above

Everything inside the nest came crashing down at once. Lee Won-jae—and the eagle chick that had been biting into him—fell helplessly together.

The beak that had refused to budge finally opened, letting out a shrill scream.

“Aaaagh—!”

Won-jae screamed as well. In a desperate attempt to grab onto something—anything—he seized the eagle chick’s wing. The underdeveloped limb snapped with a dull crack.

The broken wing fluttered uselessly, and Won-jae’s grip slipped away. He thought, vaguely, that today he had truly learned—several times over—just how merciless gravity could be.

His body plummeted for a long, long time. Won-jae stopped struggling and squeezed his eyes shut in resignation. It felt like his entire body was about to burst apart—an unmistakably unwelcome sensation.

No scream even escaped his gaping mouth. All he could think was when, exactly, his body would smash into the bottom.

Then—

Thump.

His body struck something soft. Long, fluffy fur brushed against his hand.

“…?”

Won-jae opened his eyes. The tears he had shed earlier had dried stiff against the wind, making his eyelids feel impossibly heavy. He rubbed them roughly with his hands, and only then did his vision slowly clear.

“What the…?”

Dense, honey-colored fur filled his view.

“Are you okay?”

The body that had just endured freefall began rising again, gently—like riding an elevator upward.

The voice behind him belonged to Sung Ji-woo. Only then did Won-jae press his palm against the warm body beneath him and straighten his back. Sung Ji-woo and Son Ji-hwan were riding ahead of him.

“What is this…?”

His cracked voice scraped its way out, sounding so ghostly that Won-jae flinched at the sound of it.

“You were bolder than I expected,” Sung Ji-woo said.

“…What?”

“I couldn’t see clearly from that far, but you’re the one who took down the eagle, right?”

“…Uh. I guess…?”

Won-jae glanced around awkwardly, giving a noncommittal answer. That was when he realized they were flying directly above the gorge.

The eagle’s corpse was nowhere to be seen. Since he had heard it fall into the water, it wouldn’t have been strange if it had already been swept away by the current.

The chick that had fallen with him, however, was visible. Unfortunately, it seemed to have smashed into the rocks of the gorge, its body completely broken. If not for its dark gray feathers, it would have been hard to recognize it as an eagle at all.

“There’s probably a core near the nest,” Sung Ji-woo said, “but first we need to find Ms. Chae Min-jung.”

“…Ah—Ms. Chae Min-jung!”

Won-jae let out a dazed sound, swiveling his head back and forth. Identical cliff faces stretched endlessly to both sides—it was impossible to tell where she had been.

“I saw her earlier. She was on a mountain…”

He muttered absently, licking the metallic taste of blood from his mouth. Son Ji-hwan frowned.

“But it’s all mountains here.”

“…Yeah.”

Which meant his information was useless. Sung Ji-woo gently stroked the creature carrying them.

“Still, at least we know she’s alive. Was it around here?”

“Yes—yes…”

Won-jae nodded repeatedly. Wherever she was, she had to be nearby.

The creature carrying the three of them surged upward toward the cliff. Won-jae clutched tightly at the long fur beneath his fingers.

“But… what is this?” he asked belatedly. “Is it a monster?”

The answer he received only deepened the confusion.

“Uh… well. Our shop mascot?”

Right after Lee Won-jae was taken, Sung Ji-woo and Son Ji-hwan were left behind. They exchanged blank, stunned looks.

But despair lasted only a moment. There was no time for it.

As if by unspoken agreement, the two of them started running in the direction where the eagle had disappeared. They had long since lost awareness of the fact that they were running through the sky.

“At this rate, we won’t catch up—we’ll just keep going forever,” Son Ji-hwan said.

“Hah… hng… y-you’re right…!”

Unlike Son Ji-hwan, who spoke without even sounding winded, Sung Ji-woo struggled to swallow the breath rising to his throat.

“We need to go up.”

“…Hah—how?”

Saying that, Son Ji-hwan sprang upward. His body shot straight up, as if powered by a spring.

Sung Ji-woo knew he had exceptional physical abilities, but seeing it like this was still astonishing. He stopped running and watched.

“…Huh?”

Son Ji-hwan seemed to keep leaping higher and higher, but at some point, his speed didn’t slow—instead, it accelerated, as though something above were pulling him upward.

Sung Ji-woo’s eyes widened.

That wasn’t jumping.

He was falling.

Sung Ji-woo hurriedly reached out, but his hand couldn’t come close to Son Ji-hwan, who was already far away.

He tried jumping after him, but it was as futile as trying to grab stars from the night sky. Sung Ji-woo wasn’t as physically gifted, and his body was already exhausted from the ordeal.

After repeatedly leaping at empty air, his legs finally gave out, and he collapsed. Son Ji-hwan grew more distant by the second.

At this rate, he would definitely fall. The mountain peaks above looked sharp enough to skewer Son Ji-hwan’s body at any moment.

“….”

Biting his lip anxiously, Sung Ji-woo staggered back to his feet. There was no time to hesitate.

Dizziness washed over him, his head spinning. Before he could regain his balance, something grabbed the back of his neck. His shoulders jerked upward, as if he’d been snagged on a hook.

Hot breath brushed against his back. Sung Ji-woo realized the thing that had grabbed him was a living creature—something unknown. His body stiffened.

A low growl rumbled, threatening enough to sound like it might devour him at any moment. Snapping out of it, Sung Ji-woo began to struggle.

Grrr.

The low growl vibrated like a warning. While Sung Ji-woo froze, his body was lifted into the air. Whatever had bitten down on him flung him upward.

The sudden buoyancy made Sung Ji-woo grit his teeth. His body rose slowly—then plunged sharply.

His heart felt like it dropped out of his chest. Moments later, he landed on something soft.

Fluffy fur cushioned his cheek, like lying atop a massive rug.

A familiar scent filled his nose. The warmth felt unreal. Sung Ji-woo stared at the honey-colored fur filling his vision.

“…Sunrye?”

When he lifted his head, he saw a tail flapping side to side like a propeller. As absurd as it seemed, Sung Ji-woo was certain the creature carrying him was Sunrye.

Woof!

As if answering his call, Sunrye barked loudly. Sung Ji-woo carefully turned over, finally seeing Sunrye’s large, gentle face looking back at him.

“Y-you… why are you here…? No—why are you so big now…?”

Stammering in disbelief, Sung Ji-woo spoke, and Sunrye barked again, almost like it was smiling.

Woof, woof!

It felt like reassurance. Sung Ji-woo relaxed, his tense body going limp as he sprawled over Sunrye’s back.

But only for a moment.

“We have to save the others. The guild members—Son Ji-hwan!”

At Sung Ji-woo’s words, Sunrye immediately dove downward at full speed. Sung Ji-woo leaned over and saw Son Ji-hwan falling with a vacant expression.

Sunrye sliced cleanly through the air and caught him safely. With a soft thud, Son Ji-hwan landed beside Sung Ji-woo, who quickly grabbed him.

“Are you okay?”

“Yes—yes. But what is this…?”

The sudden appearance of a strange creature mid-fall had clearly shaken Son Ji-hwan.

“This one… the one from the general store…”

“That’s right. Sunrye.”

“Wasn’t it a dog?”

“It is a dog, but… not just a dog…”

Sung Ji-woo struggled to find the right words. At first, he’d thought it was a divine beast—but…

There were too many things that didn’t add up for it to be one. Above all, even Gu Min-ah, a divine-beast ability user, had said it probably wasn’t one.

But it wasn’t an ordinary dog. And it wasn’t a monster either.

“So where did it come from all of a sudden? Is this your ability, Deputy Guild Leader?”

“…I don’t think so. I honestly don’t know why it appeared either.”

One day, it had simply started following him around, and he’d ended up taking it in—but even then…

Sung Ji-woo didn’t know what it truly was. It acted like he was its owner, yet sometimes vanished without warning.

And then, when the time was right, it would reappear.

Just like now.

There were too many unanswered questions—but this wasn’t the time for them.

“For now, saving everyone else comes first.”

Sunrye sniffed around, nose twitching as it searched. Then it stopped at one spot, eyes gleaming.

“Looks like it found them.”

As soon as Sung Ji-woo finished speaking, Sunrye burst forward at full speed.