Chapter 9: A Reckless Sacrifice and a Desperate Remedy

Sa-yoon pressed his eyes shut, lost in a torment of thought. He pictured the hundreds of thousands of people living on the ground above, then his own future after removing the ring and resolving the situation.

He envisioned a future where he was discovered, having achieved an almost impossible feat, without any lingering side effects.

Despite knowing it was a selfish concern, Sa-yoon clenched his right hand, still adorned with the ring. As he silently wrestled with his thoughts, Han Do-hoon approached him.

He had reattached the equipment he’d set on the floor back to his waist.

“I’m going.”

“What did you say?”

“I have to go down and stop it.”

Han Do-hoon rose to his feet, preparing to move once more.

“It’s too dangerous. The water is already pouring down!”

“It hasn’t completely submerged yet. With luck, I might be able to fix it.”

Sa-yoon hastily relayed the coordinates, biting his lip in unease. The location he’d given was already underwater.

To reach it, Han Do-hoon would have to fight against the torrent. Even for an S-class Esper, survival would be difficult if his breathing was cut off.

“Han Do-hoon, don’t do anything foolish. Just escape to the other side. Then you’ll at least survive.”

“Then only I would survive.”

“Hey!”

Han Do-hoon melted the floor. Sa-yoon cried out, seeing him act as if he would leap straight into the accident site.

“Snap out of it! You’re a fire attribute; what are you going to do by rushing into the water? You can’t stop it!”

“I have to try. There’s no other option.”

“Wait…!”

Sa-yoon’s face contorted as Do-hoon plummeted downward in an instant. Was he out of his mind? Rushing to his death like this?

It wasn’t some 21st-century superhero movie; it was clearly a meaningless demise.

“……”

Sa-yoon stared intently at the hole where Han Do-hoon had fallen.

‘What good is that damn sense of justice? To act for such an unfitting reason.’ He felt a bitter taste in his mouth, as if he had needlessly sent someone to their death.

With a frown of lingering discomfort, Sa-yoon racked his brain to stabilize the ground even faster. It would be ideal if they could stop the ground from collapsing, as Han Do-hoon suggested.

While that was the best-case scenario, the success rate was infinitesimally low.

Han Do-hoon wasn’t a spatial manipulation ability user like Sa-yoon; he was an offensive Esper who could only spew flames. Even if he reached the coordinates, there wasn’t much he could do.

“Damn it…”

Left alone, Sa-yoon removed his gloves, tucked them into his pocket, and took off the ring. ‘Let fate decide.’ Dr. Jung Hyun-woo’s curses seemed to echo in his ears.

However, there was no other choice. Someone had already risked their life and plunged into danger. This was no time to conserve energy for later consequences.

The oppressive pressure that had painfully constricted his head vanished instantly. The calculations, which had been slowing, now accelerated.

As if to mock the time Sa-yoon had struggled, the sewage pipes shifted several times faster, and the steel frames bound the concrete, returning it to its proper place.

Freed from the ring for the first time in ages, his body rejoiced, moving precisely as Sa-yoon willed. The structure moved more robustly and cleanly than before the explosion.

At this rate, the other side would be able to respond before the Han River’s water level dropped further. With luck, the breached ground might even be sealed before Han Do-hoon drowned.

Even if the already submerged sections were beyond help, a temporary solution could be implemented.

Just as that hope took root, a massive expansion occurred deep underground. Sa-yoon’s coordinates, which had been like a pitch-black universe, warped, and a colossal black hole instantly swallowed the space he had meticulously organized.

‘What in the world did he do?’

Sa-yoon glared in the direction of the impact.

Sa-yoon was not easily disheartened. Not when his second awakening, a veritable death sentence, occurred. Not when the man he first met, his supposed father, pushed him into this place, telling him to earn his keep.

Even facing the reality that he might one day be dragged to a lab and killed, he lived joyfully, determined to savor the present.

He was confident he had upheld that resolve until now. But still, after enduring a Seoul-destroying explosion and witnessing the entire Han River pour into the underground, it was hard to hold onto any hope.

Wasn’t this a disaster that would make even Buddha’s father despair? Oh, Buddha’s father was just a human, after all.

“Han Do-hoon! Han Do-hoon!”

Sa-yoon shouted as he cleared the wet earth. He could find him quickly using his ability, but he moved cautiously, searching for him, wary of being discovered by Han Do-hoon.

While blocking the first explosion, Sa-yoon had sensed a second, inexplicable impact. Originally, the Han River’s water should have followed that explosion, engulfing the underground like a waterfall.

Yet, there was no Han River water, not even a single drop pooled on the floor.

Sa-yoon groped along the melted, uneven walls, moving forward. Black smoke filled his vision, obscuring everything.

The only variable was Han Do-hoon. It meant Han Do-hoon, who wielded flames, had stopped the surging river water.

While Sa-yoon didn’t know how he had stopped the water, it was hard to imagine Han Do-hoon being in good condition. He fumbled his way downward, forcing out his remaining strength to locate Han Do-hoon.

A faint biological response was nearby.

“What is this….”

When Sa-yoon reached the scanned location, the only words he could utter were gasps of utter disbelief.

In the center of the underground bunker was a colossal space. There, he saw pitch-black melted concrete walls and dark mounds of earth. Unlike the damp pipes he had navigated, this area pulsed with heat so intense it made his vision waver and his skin prickle.

Han Do-hoon lay collapsed near that open space. He was pristine and quiet, without a single injury, amidst the blackened, scorched environment.

It was a bizarre, almost chilling sight.

“He actually stopped it.”

Sa-yoon walked toward the center in astonishment. Despite the immense water that should have poured down, the area near Han Do-hoon felt like the heart of a volcano.

He lightly leaped across the half-melted, sludgy ground, which resembled flowing lava, to reach Han Do-hoon. Above their heads, thick black smoke billowed incessantly.

It felt as if they were standing in the center of a volcanic crater.

“Han Do-hoon. Are you alive?”

“……”

Receiving only a faint twitch, Sa-yoon gently lifted Han Do-hoon’s prone body. Fortunately, he was still alive. There was no pool of blood on the floor.

Even when Sa-yoon sat him up and shook him, only the most subtle reactions returned. Pressing below his neck, he felt a faint pulse through his fingertips.

Sa-yoon let out a sigh of relief and looked up at the ceiling. Though blackened and obscured, above them, a vast expanse of black, ash-like rock spread out.

“Did he push the water back with an explosion?”

He had caused the space he was in to erupt. Like a volcanic explosion, he had melted the earth with high temperatures and shot it upwards. A crater, spewing immense energy like lava, had surged to the surface, blocking the hole where the water would have entered.

‘He was insane.’

The explanation sounded simple enough. However, without actual lava, the only source for such an explosion would have been Han Do-hoon’s own energy. Therefore, despite his outwardly unharmed appearance, Han Do-hoon’s insides must have been utterly ravaged, like mud.

He was likely on the verge of losing control at any moment.

Sa-yoon hoisted Han Do-hoon onto his back. This heat-filled space could collapse at any moment as the ground melted away. He evacuated to a more stable area and gently lowered Han Do-hoon back onto the solid ground.

A shallow moan escaped from the fallen Han Do-hoon’s lips.

“Try to stay conscious. Hey, can you speak? Are you perhaps about to lose control?”

“…Ah…”

“What?”

“…Medication…”

Han Do-hoon, barely managing to utter a recognizable word, weakly pointed to his waist. When Sa-yoon opened the third pill bottle for the immobile Han Do-hoon, he gave a small nod.

What kind of medication would he be looking for in this situation? Sa-yoon tried to read the name of the retrieved drug. But before he could, Han Do-hoon grabbed his arm.

“Let go. You’re barely conscious, yet so stubborn.”

Han Do-hoon’s pupils were already unfocused and glazed. What kind of drug would he try to hide from others even in a moment like this?

Despite Han Do-hoon’s resistance, Sa-yoon read the name on the bottle.

Pentoxamic. A stimulant-sedative with restricted dosage.

“He’s crazy.”

This peculiar drug, which simultaneously caused stimulation and unconsciousness, was primarily used when putting someone into a ‘brain shaker.’ Its main effect was to activate the subject’s vital rhythms while causing them to lose consciousness.

Reading the drug’s name, Sa-yoon understood why Han Do-hoon had requested it. Han Do-hoon was well aware of his own condition. If he were to lose consciousness now, he would immediately lose control.

The barely stabilized ground would instantly collapse under the rampage of an S-class Esper.

Seoul would once again be swallowed by the Han River, turning into a massive quagmire. Thus, he intended to maintain his current state by keeping his biological rhythms active while suppressing his mind.

The theory sounded plausible, but the side effects of that drug were terrible. It was a vicious medication that turned people into empty machines. It was only used on serious criminals who had been sentenced to death.

“Why in the world do you carry something like this around?”

“……”

Han Do-hoon’s silent lips moved subtly. It was obvious, even without hearing him. He was urging Sa-yoon to give it to him quickly, as he could no longer endure.

Sa-yoon pressed his lips together, unable to say anything to Han Do-hoon. No other solution came to mind. Even if he tried to guide Han Do-hoon to the surface immediately, there was a high probability he would lose control before they got there.

Slapping him to keep him conscious wouldn’t work.

Han Do-hoon had chosen this drug because he knew his own condition.

“…You asked for this, didn’t you?”

“……”

“Don’t blame me for whatever happens, alright?”