20XX Love Chapter 16.3 - 15. ASH HOLE

In that moment, the ice barrier of the morgue shattered into pieces. A blast of heat washed over from the body of the Alternate emerging from the entrance. Feeling the bright flare of its crimson eyes, Jo Heechan forcefully threw up a freezing defensive barrier.

Boom!

The flame and the ice wall collided and exploded, sending the three of them tumbling toward the emergency exit.

“Kuhhhk!”

“Huk! Hahk!”

“Haak!”

There was no time to groan while fallen. Choi Suhyuk, who had come out into the hallway, directed his blazing gaze toward the three of them.

“Heechan! Block him!”

While still lying on the floor, Jo Heechan spread both his hands wide and poured a powerful torrent of cold air toward Choi Suhyuk. Seo Jungin crawled over and gripped Jo Heechan’s arm, amplifying the whirlwind of cold. The ice barrier grew progressively thicker around Choi Suhyuk’s body. Choi Suhyuk did not attack further and allowed himself to be trapped in the ice, staring intently at Seo Jungin with his crimson eyes as if to pierce him.

Kim Yikyung immediately got back on his feet. There was no time.

“I’m going inside to find the main body, so you two block Suhyuk here. Got it.”

“What? We should look together, what are you talking about.”

Kim Yikyung continued urgently, his voice a hoarse rasp.

“Do all three of us want to get burned to death by Suhyuk while wandering around inside? At this rate, the ice barrier won’t last long. The moment I enter the innermost morgue, fill the entire hallway with ice. Reinforce it with amplification. The isolation will break when the main body dies, so escape through the emergency exit behind you then. The Creepions summoned in the ward will reset, but Suhyuk will remain, so request backup from headquarters.”

“If you fill the hallway with ice, then what about you, Hyung? How are you going to escape?”

Kim Yikyung looked at Seo Jungin and Jo Heechan with his jet-black eyes. Within his gleaming pupils, Kim Yikyung’s gaze settled steadily on his surviving team members.

“Don’t worry. I’ll escape too. I’ll clone its power before I kill the main body and escape with that.”

Crackle, crackle.

Cracks began to form on the ice barrier. Weakened by the rising toxin levels, Jo Heechan’s ice barrier, even with the aid of amplification, could not hold as long as before.

“Do as I say. That’s an order!”

Without waiting for a reply, Kim Yikyung sprinted with all his might toward the end of the hallway.

“Ah, no,”

As Seo Jungin tried to jump in after Kim Yikyung, Jo Heechan caught and held him in an embrace.

“Hyung! Amplify me quickly so I can build the barrier!”

“But, Yikyung Hyung is……!”

“If we follow him, we’ll be taken down by Suhyuk Hyung following behind us before we even find the main body. We can’t handle Suhyuk Hyung with our current strength!”

Crack. Crack. Cra-crack.

As the ice barrier began to splinter into fissures, Jo Heechan could not wait any longer and unleashed cold air from his fingertips. The swirling cold began to fill the hallway with ice, along with the Alternate.

“No…….”

“Hyuuung! Hyung has to be here to draw Suhyuk Hyung’s attention. We have to hold Suhyuk Hyung here so Yikyung Hyung can find and kill the main body!”

Indeed, even though Choi Suhyuk’s Alternate showed no signs of reason, it consistently hesitated to attack Seo Jungin. The reason it wasn’t unleashing its overwhelming power was because of Seo Jungin’s presence.

In the end, with a face that looked like he was about to cry, Seo Jungin wrapped his arms around Jo Heechan’s back and pushed his amplification power into him. The torrent of cold, pouring out like a waterfall, trapped the Alternate and instantly covered the entire hallway.

The Alternate flickered, trapped inside the ice barrier. Jo Heechan continued to shoot amplified cold air on top of it, strengthening the barrier’s molecular bond and density.

Feeling Seo Jungin’s body trembling against his back, Jo Heechan glanced behind him.

“Are you crying?”

“sob, hic, I, I’m not going to run away. I can’t leave Yikyung Hyung behind. What does he mean he’ll escape by cloning the main body’s power. That’s absurd. He’s planning to die there alone.”

“Don’t worry, Hyung. I’m not running away either.”

Jo Heechan placed one of his hands over Seo Jungin’s two hands that were wrapped around his chest and gave them a firm squeeze.

“That Hyung has been acting all cool by himself since he caught that acting-tough disease. Once the ward’s isolation is broken, let’s lure Suhyuk Hyung into another room and lock him in like before, and then go get Yikyung Hyung. Let’s get out together, the three of us. So for now, just focus on amplifying.”

Ah…… why did I forget that this red-head is good at thinking on his feet. Seo Jungin rubbed his face against Jo Heechan’s warm back, wiping his tears. He liked Jo Heechan so much he wanted to hug him tight. No, just hugging wasn’t enough. Seo Jungin slipped into the space inside Jo Heechan’s outstretched arms, then tilted his head up and pressed his thin lips moistly against his soft ones.

“Eup?”

“Ngh…… Chup.”

As the amplifying energy flowed in through his lips as well, Jo Heechan’s head spun and his body instantly grew hot.

“Nngh, Hyung, ngh…….”

“Chup, chup, jjeok jjeok,”

Seo Jungin’s lips slid down to Jo Heechan’s nape. It tasted salty, but even that was electrifying.

“Hah, Hyung, if you come at me like this, ah…….”

Jo Heechan stopped shooting the cold air and wound his hand in the hair of Seo Jungin, who was sucking on his nape.

“Haa, Heechan-ah.”

“Ah, haah, this feels so good. When you do this, Hyung, I get so, so turned on…….”

Jo Heechan couldn’t tell if he was dizzy from the rising toxin levels or from being so turned on; his ears were ringing, his vision was spinning, and all the strength drained from his body in an instant.

‘Ah…… I really want to fuck him. I want to fucking pound into him. Can’t I?’

Panting with lust, Jo Heechan saw Choi Suhyuk’s Alternate shimmering beyond the ice barrier and, for a moment, felt like utter trash. No matter how irresistible the pleasure Seo Jungin gave him was, wanting to fuck in this situation really didn’t seem right.

Then, even if he didn’t do that, maybe something a little less intense…….

“Hyung…… can’t I just suck your nipple once?”

“Chup, jjeok, what?”

Seo Jungin lifted his head and looked up at Jo Heechan’s face. His naturally sharp, upturned eyes were now drooping like a puppy’s, creating a pleading expression.

“I’m serious. I’ve wanted to suck it for a while. Just once…….”

He was, truly, the same old Jo Heechan.

“…….”

Taking the silent response as an affirmation, Jo Heechan quickly pushed Seo Jungin against the wall, pulled the hem of his shirt out from his pants, and lifted it, then began to flick his tongue over his nipple. Then he sucked on it firmly before lapping at it again and again.

“Ah! At! At! You said just once……!”

“Just a bit. Just a little bit more…… jjeup, jjeup, jjok,”

Seo Jungin’s nipple was still soft, smooth, and supple, and it tasted sweet every time he licked it. When he sucked on it, it became firm and plump, making him want to gnaw and chew on it with his teeth.

“Hah…… jjeup jjeup, haah, how is it? You know it’s not a fantasy now, right? Huh? jjok jjok.”

“Hut, heueut, ungh, eu-eung,”

“Did I suck you like this in your nightmares too? I bet I didn’t suck you in the fantasies, did I.”

“sob, heu-euk, that, a few times, he did suck, hut!”

As he sucked and licked the nipple, Jo Heechan thought to himself that at least his image was properly embedded in Seo Jungin’s mind. After all, fantasy manipulation was based on the attacked person’s thoughts and memories.

Meanwhile, Kim Yikyung, who had entered the tenth morgue, was able to find the Separator’s main body at once. He saw at a glance that it had even created an extra row of drawers and set up a telepathic veil. For Kim Yikyung’s eyes, which had absorbed a great deal of the Arche’s wavelength, the waves flowing from the main body were now clearly visible.

The telepathic veil appeared translucent to his eyes. The main body had created a large cocoon-like den beyond the veil and was hiding inside. Drawing a dagger from his holster band, Kim Yikyung unhesitatingly thrust both hands into the telepathic veil. Unlike before, he didn’t feel the texture of the illusory veil and passed right through. The moment he stabbed the dagger into the cocoon den, a scream erupted.

“Kkiiiiiieeeeeek!”

Confronted with that sound, drenched in terror, Kim Yikyung momentarily lost his reason and, seized by an unbearable rage, swung the dagger wildly, slashing the cocoon. As the cocoon was ripped to shreds, the Separator, the size of a large adult male, shrieked repeatedly and retreated as far back as it could inside the cocoon den.

Considering what they had gone through in the ward because of this son of a bitch, just killing it was far too generous a fate. Nam Taeyong had committed suicide, and Hwang Woohyun had died at the hands of his friend. Kim Yikyung’s own main body had been torn apart and eaten by Creepions, and Choi Suhyuk had finally transformed into a monster. And even now, that same Choi Suhyuk was brandishing flames in the hallway, trying to kill his friends.

He also couldn’t forgive it for leaving behind the memory of the endless nightmare Seo Jungin had experienced. This monster deserved to feel all that pain without exception, to be torn to shreds and mangled to death over a long period of time.

It was just as Kim Yikyung, his gleaming black eyes—which now looked like the Separator’s—widened as he raised the knife high into the air.

“Hik, hii-ik!”

The Separator, seized by terror, gripped Kim Yikyung’s wrist tightly with its thin, hard fingers, and in that instant. Overwhelmed by the powerful images pouring from the main body, Kim Yikyung was sucked into the Separator’s time along with it.

It felt like being sucked deep into a long, smooth quagmire. The feeling of falling helplessly into a trap lined with densely packed villi.

Thus, he was irresistibly pulled into the Separator’s time and memories, forced to face the images being shown to him and the memories being implanted in him.

The name of the blond man in a black beanie, pressed into his memories, was Kang Sunghwan.

Kang Sunghwan. He was a Special Trait-type Esper, and the power he primarily wielded was the ability to control time and space.

Kang Sunghwan was the leader of team K364, who commanded his strong-willed members with leadership.

As a Special Trait-type Esper, Kang Sunghwan could, if he set his mind to it, absorb and train in other abilities as well, but he had a natural talent for manipulating time and space, so he focused and immersed himself solely in that power. Eventually, through a tremendous amount of training over a long period, Kang Sunghwan developed his ability to the point where he could play with time at will.

Time, which has no up or down, no front or back. To Kang Sunghwan, time was a fragment of the expanding universe, a wide web that proliferated endlessly depending on the chosen value. He could tear off a fragment to imprison someone, or he could bring someone from another fragment.

The power to touch time, to ride time, to be embraced by time. Kang Sunghwan was entranced by that power. He could peer into the infinite universe and sculpt time with his fingertips. He could trap people in time, sew time, and create rifts in time to make them lose their way. He knew time well, and he thought he knew it well.

Kang Sunghwan was proud of that power and brimming with confidence.

Under Kang Sunghwan’s lead, team K364 was composed of a tall and silent platinum-blond Illusion-type Esper, a mood-making brown-haired curly Summon-type Esper, a former baseball prospect Healing-type Esper with severe mysophobia, and a highly competitive and prickly but team-caring Telekinesis-type Esper.

Team K364 was promoted several times thanks to their excellent mission performance and was frequently assigned important missions. They were often deployed in X-Creepions extermination operations in particular, and as it was a time when Guides were still scarce, they lived on neutralizers and had to be careful not to overuse their abilities during battle.

What could have happened? The images flashed by quickly.

Team K364 was deployed on an X-Creepions extermination mission. Perhaps they had become complacent due to their previous string of victories, but team K364 was ambushed, suffered major injuries, and struggled in the battle. Feeling psychologically pressured, Kang Sunghwan, in his desire to protect his team members, recklessly opened a time-space trap, and that was when the tragedy occurred. Kang Sunghwan’s toxin level surged uncontrollably, and he ended up becoming an Alternate.

He didn’t even have time to swallow the Detitoxin. With his eyes turning black, Kang Sunghwan began to be devoured by time in an instant.

He thought he knew it well. He thought he could play with it as much as he wanted. But being devoured by that power was so painful and agonizing. The threads at his fingertips, which had stretched infinitely and intertwined throughout the universe, all returned to entangle and stab his body, binding him so tightly he couldn’t even breathe.

Tied up tightly by those threads, his airway constricted, he was completely unable to resist, like a pupa in a cocoon. Trapped inside the tightly wound cocoon, his mind was filled with only one thought.

‘I want to go back.’

To before he became a monster. To his living human body. To that time when he laughed with everyone. He wanted to go back.

His singular desire, repeatedly wished for within the cocoon, was at some point replaced by the human instinct of appetite, until eventually, only appetite remained.

‘I want to eat humans.’

If I catch a human, if I eat a human, can I return to being human then?

If I catch them, kill them, and eat them, can I return to being human then?

If I contain a human, wear a human, and put human thoughts into my stomach. Can I return to being human then?

If I don’t go back even after eating and eating, I’ll have to eat a lot of them. I’ll make a trap and make lots and lots and lots of people fall into it and die. Then. I’ll crawl over and chew them up starting from the head. I’ll chew them from head to toe. I’ll chew them up with my teeth, crunch crunch, and swallow every last bit.

Finally, breaking through the cocoon and being reborn, Kang Sunghwan had become a terrifying monster with grotesquely twisted limbs and gleaming black eyes. An X-Creepions filled with an appetite to eat humans, possessing the power to manipulate time and space. He had become a Separator.

He could see his sobbing, wailing, and crying members, but to the monstrous Kang Sunghwan, they only looked like delectable prey.

He hid, made a nest, and dug a trap to lure his members one by one. He chewed up the platinum-blond member who had become a vegetable after being driven to suicide in a fantasy. He deliciously tore apart and ate the youngest, brown-haired member who had been neutralized after taking his own life in a nightmare.

The former baseball prospect member was tender and had a wonderful aroma, and the prideful black-haired member was strangely, exceptionally delicious.

He ate them all, but he couldn’t go back to before he became a monster. He ate them all, but he couldn’t become human. He ate them all, but he couldn’t return to the time when he laughed with them.

Because he had eaten them all. Because they were all inside his stomach. Therefore, he could never return to the time when he laughed with them…….

After that, Kang Sunghwan’s power grew stronger. As a naturally gifted Special Trait-type Esper, eating other ability users allowed him to absorb their powers and become even stronger. Kang Sunghwan became a naturally gifted Special Trait-type X-Creepions.

Kang Sunghwan wanted to eat more humans. Living, dead, whatever he could get his hands on.

He dug traps, snared humans, and ate his fill. He ate them deliciously, ate them greedily, chewed and swallowed his fill.

And still, he was not satisfied. His appetite was not sated. It wasn’t enough, and still not enough. So he made a nest in the morgue.

I have to take out the corpses and eat them all. Take them all out and eat them. I’m going to eat lots and lots, so very many. I’m going to eat them all.

‘But why did I want to eat humans? Why did I want to eat them in the first place.’

He couldn’t remember such things. Now, only the appetite itself, the need to eat humans, remained.

But then, there was a truly ecstatic scent. A person filled with an ecstatic scent came. That person stayed for a while, then left, leaving the ecstatic scent behind.

He pulled out the corpse they had left behind. The scent lingering on the corpse. What is this scent? I want to eat this corpse. I want to eat it so, so badly. I want to eat this human who has this ecstatic scent.

Kang Sunghwan began to eat the corpse’s stomach. The moment he took a bite…… Kang Sunghwan fell into a state of ecstasy. The scent infused in the corpse’s body was so incredibly sweet. So melt-in-your-mouth tender.

He wanted to eat more. He wanted to eat more of it. He wanted to suck on this ecstatic scent forever.

Where is he? Where is he? Where is he? Where is the person who spread this scent?

Kang Sunghwan buried his face in the corpse’s stomach and, as he sucked, began to dream. He began to turn all of the corpse’s dreams into nightmares. This corpse’s precious person. The people who hold this corpse precious.

A dream where monsters endlessly pour out, ravenously tearing apart a precious person.

A dream where a precious person turns into a monster and tears apart a precious person.

A horrifying dream where the corpses of precious people slosh and pour down, piling up endlessly.

Suddenly, the Separator’s black, gleaming eyes widened and it came right up to Kim Yikyung’s nose.

‘You know. You all have the same scent. So delicious. So, so delicious. I want to eat you all. I want to tear you all apart. I want to crunch you up. I want to gobble you down. I want to pile you all up here like a mountain and eat you all day long.’

“Eu, eu-aaaaah!”

Kim Yikyung was thrown back from the Separator, staggering backward. The dagger he had dropped spun across the floor and slid away, getting stuck somewhere.

‘It’s not enough. You’re not enough. Where is he? Where is that fragrant person? I want to wrap him in a cocoon and suck him dry. I want to bury my head in his intestines and suck them out. But why won’t that person die? Why does he keep waking up? Why? Why?’

“Huk, huk, huk,”

Even though it wasn’t coming out as sound, he could hear it clearly. The main body’s desire.

This Separator was targeting Seo Jungin. It had been setting a trap to catch Seo Jungin ever since it smelled his scent in the B1 morgue. Using the entire K814 team as bait to capture and suck Seo Jungin dry. That was why the Separator’s pattern had changed so bizarrely after Han Seungmin’s death.

‘Ah. I get it. The reason he keeps waking up.’

The Separator’s eyes gleamed as it stared intently at Kim Yikyung, then slowly, its mouth stretched wide open.

‘It’s because of you.’

Inside the grotesquely gaping, black maw, sharp teeth matted with blood and flesh were terrifyingly revealed.