20XX Love Chapter 11.2 - 11. OBSIDIAN HOLE

Kim Yikyung, who had been shot, scattered into the air with gruesome screams of “Keok, Keok,” leaving only one fake Kim Yikyung in the center hall, collapsing and convulsing where the figures had disappeared.

“Yikyung Hyung! Nam Taeyong!”

Choi Suhyuk and Hwang Woohyun were running from the other side of the hallway. They were only just arriving now; contrary to their expectations of an easy victory, it seemed they had struggled considerably against Freezer.

The Kim Yikyung who had been lying on the floor pushed Nam Taeyong away and stood up.

Before Choi Suhyuk and Hwang Woohyun, who had run to the central hall, could even notice the fallen Kim Yikyung’s Hyung’s condition, Kim Yikyung spoke first, revealing the identity of the X-Creepion.

“It wasn’t Bolt Striker, it was Replicator. It appeared on the 5th floor in a replicated form.”

“Replicated?”

“This right now… is it replicated in Hyung’s form?”

The Replicator, which had copied Kim Yikyung’s appearance, began to revert to its original form as its convulsions gradually subsided while the four espers, their expressions grim, watched.

The abundant hair seeped into the scalp, and the shirt and pants morphed into a gruesome skin, as if all the inner and outer layers were being turned inside out, transforming into a horrific sight.

Before the eyes of everyone, colored with shock, the flesh inverted, and the hands and feet shriveled, becoming blunt lumps. The eyeballs were sucked into the sockets, and the lips rolled into the mouth. The ears into the earholes, the nose into the nostrils, as if everything on the surface was being sucked inward.

The Replicator returned to the form familiar to espers: shrunken limbs, a skull-like head, and an emaciated figure covered in rotten muscles and flesh with its outer skin gone. And finally, it stopped convulsing and became a corpse.

“…….”

Lost for words at the sight, far more gruesome and horrifying than imagined, everyone looked down at the Replicator’s corpse.

The one who fell into the most chilling and horrifying thoughts was Kim Yikyung. It was because he had witnessed the entire process of the transformation from his own form into a hideous monstrosity. It was no different from witnessing the process of transforming into a Variant firsthand.

The process of Kim Yikyung, who possessed the replication ability, becoming a Variant due to the runaway toxic power.

The ability that absorbs all power. So it even absorbed myself.

‘This is… this is me… who has been devoured by myself?’

쿵……

쿠궁……

The four espers looked at each other at the vibrating sound that resonated through the floor.

쿠과광!

With a tremendous explosion, the elevator doors were flung off, crashing into the opposite wall. The espers, who had instinctively crouched, quickly turned towards the elevator, assuming their stances to activate their abilities.

They could see the ropes dangling from the hoist, snapped, in the empty elevator shaft where the doors had flown off, and then, from below, a bright, yellow light gradually intensified.

“Dodge!”

Following the momentary flash of light, an immense heat filled the entire shaft and erupted from the elevator entrance.

If a thick ice barrier, conjured by Jo Heechan from behind the barrier, had not surrounded the four as they threw themselves towards the hallway, Kim Yikyung and Nam Taeyong, who had weak defenses against heat, would have suffered serious damage.

따르르르르릉!

Before the heat from the explosion could even subside, the fire alarm began to blare loudly.

As if the real emergency was just beginning.

Crimson flames surged within the elevator shaft, and the central hall was quickly filled with intense heat. Black smoke billowed, obscuring the view of the safe zone across the hall where the barrier curtain was drawn.

“Is everyone alright? Is anyone hurt?”

Kim Yikyung hurriedly checked on the members sprawled on the floor. Fortunately, thanks to the ability barriers surrounding them and the additional ice barrier Jo Heechan had provided, there were no injuries.

But the problem was the fire. If the flames consuming the elevator shaft were left unchecked, they would spread throughout the entire ward. Even if the ward was treated with the highest grade fire retardant and equipped with sprinklers and smoke exhaust systems, if the fire grew larger, smoke and toxic gas would spread rapidly.

“Ugh, cough, cough, hack.”

Nam Taeyong covered his nose and mouth with his arm against the sudden influx of smoke and looked beyond the central hall. Even with the sound of the smoke dampers activating, smoke had already filled the space, making it impossible to see even an inch ahead.

“Let’s evacuate to the roof. We’ll suffocate.”

“We have to suppress the fire first.”

Kim Yikyung, also covering his mouth, quickly replied and racked his brain. The current situation:

First, if the fire was left unattended, there was a risk of collapse. Containing the fire within the ward was paramount.

Second, with the elevator destroyed, the Creepions could only access the 5th floor through the emergency exit.

Third, given the magnitude of the explosion, there must be a Flaminger (fire-type X-Creepion) on the lower floors. In that case, Jo Heechan, an ice-type esper, was needed for attribute attacks.

“Woohyun, go to the safe zone immediately and protect Jungin. Have Heechan suppress the fire in the elevator shaft. I’ll replicate Woohyun’s lightning ability and guard the emergency exit with Suhyuk and Taeyong. Once Heechan joins us after extinguishing the fire, we should be able to handle most attribute attacks from any X-Creepions that appear. If the fire has already spread to the lower floors and toxic gas rises, we’ll all evacuate to the roof. Any objections?”

There wasn’t even time for objections. Hwang Woohyun immediately clasped hands with Kim Yikyung, transferring his ability, and then ran straight into the thick smoke and heat.

The remaining three were just about to set off towards the emergency exit.

Thwack.

A hand reached out from the smoke, firmly gripping the shoulders of Kim Yikyung and Choi Suhyuk.

‘Heechan… is that you?’

The hand gripping their shoulders was covered in blisters.

“……!”

Kim Yikyung’s eyes widened. Without a moment to assess the situation.

Phwack.

Blood gushed from the mouths of Kim Yikyung and Choi Suhyuk, who were now poisoned.

“Cough…….”

“Hack, cough…….”

Warm liquid splattered on Nam Taeyong’s face as the two collapsed into the thick smoke.

“Fuck!”

Nam Taeyong pulled out his positron gun and fired at the blurry figure in the smoke, but the particle beam missed, and the monstrous figure lunged straight at him. As their bodies tangled, the gun was knocked away, spinning somewhere on the floor. Nam Taeyong and the creature grappled, rolling on the floor.

The monster, covered in blisters from head to toe, was Venom Injector.

Pinning Nam Taeyong to the floor, Venom Injector gripped his shoulders and injected its poison, phwack, phwack. Nam Taeyong, while coughing up blood, wrapped his arms around Venom Injector’s neck, choking it and injecting his own potent venom.

“Kuweak!”

Black blood erupted from Venom Injector’s mouth, splashing against Nam Taeyong’s face as he barely managed to dodge.

Venom Injector was a Creepion that constantly poisoned itself, writhing in the agony of its own deadly venom. Its self-healing skin would blister, burst, and heal, only for new blisters to form and burst elsewhere in a relentless cycle. The sight was nauseating.

“Kuweak, Kuek,”

“Kugh, cough, cough,”

Nam Taeyong exchanged venom with the Venom Injector on top of him, continuously spitting up blood. Matching the strength of his disgusting counterpart, Nam Taeyong drove his knee upwards with all his might, throwing the creature off to the side. Staggering to his feet, he narrowly avoided Venom Injector’s renewed attack and drew a dagger from his belt.

Even Venom Injector’s eyes, fixed on Nam Taeyong, were cloudy and repulsive, covered in blisters. Nam Taeyong aimed the dagger, flicking its tip in the air. His mouth and chin, smeared with red blood, gleamed eerily.

“Come on. Come on, you son of a bitch.”

“Kuh… Kueeeek!”

Venom Injector stretched its arms forward and lunged at Nam Taeyong with all its might.

“Son of a bitch!”

Meeting the attack head-on, Nam Taeyong plunged the dagger deep into its abdomen.

Thwack, thwack, thud, thud,

“Die! Die! Die!”

Nam Taeyong repeatedly stabbed and gouged Venom Injector’s abdomen with the dagger. He didn’t flinch even as he was gripped by the shoulders and injected with poison. He coughed up blood, but his hand didn’t stop.

“Cough, cough, hack, die, d, dieee!”

Finally, he ripped the blade out and plunged it forcefully into the heart. The convulsing monster’s hand weakly grasped Nam Taeyong’s hand holding the dagger.

Nam Taeyong stared intensely into Venom Injector’s gruesome eyes and then looked down at the blistered hand gripping his own.

“……?”

Nam Taeyong’s gaze slowly filled with horror. The monster’s hand, now completely limp, fell away, and Venom Injector’s body slumped to the side, collapsing onto the floor with a thud.

Nam Taeyong stumbled back in shock. He looked down at the fallen creature again, his eyes filled with disbelief.

What was clinging to the body, tattered and torn… were those clothes? Clothes? Are they clothes?

Unrecognizable, melted, and burnt clothes. It was wearing clothes.

What was glittering on the monster’s wrist… was it a sapphire? A sapphire bracelet.

Nam Taeyong stared, wide-eyed, at the sapphire gem embedded in Venom Injector’s wrist, then shifted his gaze to the bracelet on his own wrist.

It was a relic of his deceased grandmother, his only ally in this world.

Nam Taeyong’s gaze returned to the monster’s wrist. The silver chain was gone, either melted or otherwise destroyed, but the sapphire, threaded through the steel wire and frame, gleamed blue.

It was the same. The toxic X-Creepion’s wrist bore the same sapphire bracelet as him, a toxic esper.

This… this is my Variant.

“Gasp! Gasp! Gasp!”

Nam Taeyong’s knees buckled, and he collapsed onto the floor. As a puddle of black blood crept towards his feet, he recoiled in terror, scrambling backwards.

“Gasp, gasp, gasp! Gasp!”

I killed it. I killed myself. That was definitely my Variant.

It was me. The Separator summoned my future self.

All the X-Creepions summoned here were our Variants. We were killing ourselves with our own hands.

Our future in this ward… is to become monsters and be killed by our own hands!

“Gasp, gasp, gasp, gasp,”

“Hyung! Hyung! Taeyong Hyung!”

Nam Taeyong, consumed by panic, his eyes wide, barely registered someone shaking his shoulders. His gaze remained fixed on the corpse.

“Hyung! Are you okay? Hyung! Snap out of it!”

At the sharp cry, he snapped his gaze back, seeing Jo Heechan’s soot-stained face close to his own.

“Are you hurt? Are you in pain? Are you okay?”

Jo Heechan looked panicked and flustered. Nam Taeyong, bewildered, lowered his gaze to see his uniform soaked in red blood. He frantically checked his shirt and then wiped his mouth and chin repeatedly with his hands.

Glancing towards the elevator, he saw that the fire in the shaft had been extinguished. Jo Heechan had suppressed the fire with his ice ability and rushed over. Smoke still filled the air, but thanks to the cold air, breathing was much easier.

Seeing that Nam Taeyong seemed alright for now, Jo Heechan immediately rushed over to the unconscious Kim Yikyung and Choi Suhyuk. Their faces were pale, and blood trickled from their mouths. Jo Heechan checked their breathing. Fortunately, they were both alive. But even after lightly slapping their cheeks and calling their names, they showed no signs of waking up.

“They seem poisoned. We need to heal them quickly.”

Jo Heechan spoke urgently, but Nam Taeyong just stared blankly at the collapsed Kim Yikyung and Choi Suhyuk.

“Taeyong Hyung! We have to heal them now!”

Jo Heechan yelled, and Nam Taeyong, as if suddenly jolted awake, scrambled to his feet. He rushed to the fallen pair, slipping his hands inside their shirts.

Both Choi Suhyuk and Kim Yikyung were on the verge of cardiac arrest as the poison spread through their bodies. Since Kim Yikyung had replicated the lightning ability, his previously replicated healing ability had vanished, preventing self-recovery. Just in time, the healing power spread, and the poison within them began to dissipate.

While Nam Taeyong focused on healing, Jo Heechan approached Venom Injector’s corpse and examined it closely.

“Were you ambushed? Was it just this one that attacked?”

Nam Taeyong’s shadowed gaze turned to Jo Heechan. The panic had subsided, but he couldn’t bring himself to speak. After a long moment, words finally tumbled out.

“That, that’s me.”

“Huh?”

Jo Heechan, not understanding, asked again. Nam Taeyong was uncharacteristically stammering. Come to think of it, he had been acting strangely. Nam Taeyong, who rarely showed surprise, had lost his composure. His wide, sanpaku eyes looked as if he had received a great shock. Jo Heechan sensed something was seriously wrong.

“That’s my Variant.”

“……Variant……?”

“Fuck.”

Nam Taeyong suddenly bared his teeth, cursing.

“Look closely at the bracelet on its wrist.”

Jo Heechan’s eyes widened as he looked at Nam Taeyong, then dropped his gaze to Venom Injector’s wrist. A steel frame and wire with a blue sapphire were embedded in the blistered wrist. Still unable to comprehend, Jo Heechan looked back at Nam Taeyong.

Nam Taeyong held up his own wrist, a bloodshot smile twisting his lips.

“That bracelet is mine.”

Staring at Nam Taeyong’s wrist for a long moment, Jo Heechan’s eyes slowly filled with shock and horror. He realized what the identical bracelets meant. He realized the X-Creepions were their Variants. He realized they had killed their future selves with their own hands.

At that moment, Kim Yikyung and Choi Suhyuk gasped, regaining consciousness.

“Cough, cough, hack… gasp, gasp,”

“Gasp! Gasp, gasp, gasp,”

As the two opened their eyes, a panicked Jo Heechan knelt before them.

“Suhyuk Hyung… when, when you killed Freezer. Did it have a piercing in its ear?”

“Gasp, gasp……?”

Jo Heechan’s wide eyes moved closer to Choi Suhyuk’s face.

“Did it have a platinum cross piercing in its left ear?”

Kim Yikyung’s expression, who was catching his breath beside them, hardened. The glint of light he’d seen from Freezer’s ear as it turned, the ominous and chilling sense of déjà vu he’d felt, this was it. It was the same cross piercing that now glittered in Jo Heechan’s left ear.

“It did.”

Kim Yikyung’s words confirmed the horrifying reality. The espers’ deadened gazes fell upon Venom Injector’s corpse. Their eyes were like those of someone looking at their own corpse.

The Bolt Striker they had incinerated and electrocuted with all their might, then finished off with poison, was Hwang Woohyun’s Variant. The Kim Yikyungs they had stabbed and shot to death, over and over, were all Kim Yikyung transformed into Replicators. The Freezer that Choi Suhyuk and Hwang Woohyun had hunted down and mercilessly burned and stabbed was the Variant of Jo Heechan, their beloved youngest member.

It was the team leader’s voice that broke the dreadful silence.

“That means it’s Suhyuk’s Variant’s turn to appear… doesn’t it?”

Crackle! Sizzle!

At that moment, an earsplitting sound ripped through the air as lightning flashed through the smoke in the central hall.

Everyone jumped to their feet. Hwang Woohyun, who was in the safe zone, had used his lightning ability. Seo Jungin’s frantic cry followed.

“Woohyun!”

And then came,

“Kraaaa!”

Hwang Woohyun’s heart-wrenching, horrific scream.

The four espers scrambled to their feet and ran towards the safe zone.

“Uwaaaa!”

“Woohyun! Woohyun! No!”

Hwang Woohyun’s agonizing screams and Seo Jungin’s mournful cries continued. Hwang Woohyun had been attacked. If Hwang Woohyun fell, Seo Jungin would be left alone.

Jungin… Jungin is in danger!

Jo Heechan immediately shot a stream of ice towards the barrier curtain as he ran. The smoke cleared, opening a path.

Zing. Ziiiing.

The sound of positron gun fire echoed.

“No! Sob, no! Sob, n, no……”

Seo Jungin’s whimpering voice. A voice filled with terror.

“Fuck, no, not Jungin!”

“Seo Jungin!”

“Jungin!”

They shouted, reaching the safe zone. Choi Suhyuk ripped away the barrier curtain.

The first thing that caught their eyes was Hwang Woohyun, collapsed on the floor. Or rather, they knew Hwang Woohyun was there, so they recognized him. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have been able to tell it was him.

Hwang Woohyun was charred black from head to toe, emitting smoke. Not only that, but both his arms, the ones that had unleashed the lightning, were devoid of flesh and muscle. Only blackened bones, like burnt logs, remained.

And Seo Jungin. K814’s precious guide, Seo Jungin.

He was struggling, held in a suffocating embrace by Flaminger, which reeked of burning flesh.

Huge hands, grotesquely blistered and peeling, wrapped around Seo Jungin’s back and the nape of his neck. A swollen, pus-oozing face was pressed against his. As if to tighten its grip on the wriggling body trying to escape its embrace, Flaminger pushed Seo Jungin against the wall, grinding its lips against his.

The horrified espers saw Seo Jungin’s Adam’s apple bob convulsively. His feet scraped and pushed against the floor in resistance, and white hands fluttered beneath his pinned body.

A moment later, Flaminger’s, Choi Suhyuk’s Variant’s, lips parted, and Seo Jungin’s bright red eyes, rolling back in his head, glazed over.

“Ah… ah… ah……”

Seo Jungin began to convulse, clawing frantically at his throat, chest, and stomach.

“Hot… h, hot…”