00817 The Abyss of Annihilation
In the end, even the experts concluded that all contact had been lost.
At today’s meeting, someone cautiously suggested one last attempt to send soldiers in, but the mood was decidedly grim.
The soldiers themselves were uneasy. I overheard murmurs questioning why we were so fixated on this, especially since we had already captured the enemy’s capital. I nearly snapped, but when someone retorted, “Why don’t you go in yourself, then?” I held my tongue.
After the meeting dragged on late, I returned to my quarters to find a dead animal tucked under the blanket on my bed.
…Who on earth would do such a thing?
— From the Atlanta Secret Library, “The Fall of the Balkan Kingdom: A War Diary”
Ko Yeon-ju frowned, roughly releasing the man’s collar as she walked over. In her right hand dangled a small pouch tied to a string.
She slightly opened the pouch’s mouth and held it out.
“This. Do you know what it is?”
I peeked inside and saw it filled with a pink powder, about a third full. Was this what had been attached to the arrow tips earlier?
Curious, I sniffed it lightly—and immediately a sweet scent stabbed sharply into my nostrils. I recoiled quickly, instinctively pulling my head back. For some reason, an alarm bell rang in my mind. Even as the scent tried to spread, I summoned my power to purify the air instantly.
“Cough, cough!”
After a couple of coughs, I looked up to see Ko Yeon-ju nodding knowingly.
“Of course, it doesn’t work on Su-hyun.”
“This is…?”
“An aphrodisiac.”
“An aphrodisiac?”
“Yes. But not your ordinary kind.”
“…?”
She narrowed her eyes and glared at the tied-up men again.
“Su-hyun, have you ever heard of a herb called ‘Aphrodisia’?”
Aphrodisia? I’d never heard of it in any of the previous missions.
I shook my head, and Ko Yeon-ju continued.
“Not many know about it. This powder is made from the Aphrodisia herb. It’s incredibly rare and difficult to prepare. I’ve only used it once during my prime. It’s dangerous, so it’s rarely used—and often unavailable.”
“Is it that effective?”
“Effective? It’s incredible. They call it ‘living powder.’ The moment you inhale even a tiny bit, it spreads through your entire body within ten seconds. From then on, reason disappears, leaving only instinct. Plus, when it reacts with internal and external heat, it spreads exponentially faster.”
“…”
So that’s why they were firing fireballs indiscriminately earlier.
Ko Yeon-ju’s ‘prime’ must refer to her days in Salmun. That means the attackers had some confidence backing them. No fool would openly snipe like that without a plan.
“The scarier part is that no antidote is known so far. No potion, no spell—nothing works. The only way to calm it is through intercourse right before death…”
A sudden question popped into my mind.
“So, if someone were exposed to this powder…”
“Well, you wouldn’t fall for it, Su-hyun, but if you did… it takes about five to ten minutes for the powder to disperse…”
Muttering to herself, Ko Yeon-ju’s expression darkened as she glared murderously at the men tied in the center. Then she glanced at me and said, “Now that I think about it, this pisses me off.”
“Want to hear why?”
“No, I’m good. Anyway, since it’s dangerous, I’ll take responsibility for it. If it’s that powerful, it could be useful somewhere.”
I took the pouch and slipped it into my pocket, feeling a strange gaze on me. Ko Yeon-ju, Nam Da-eun, Jung Ha-yeon, and Im Han-na—all four women were looking at me with slightly flushed faces. I couldn’t shake off the awkward feeling and spoke up.
“Wait a minute. I’m not planning to use it like that.”
This time, Kim Han-byul and Lee Yoo-jung shot me disappointed looks. Seriously, what are you two sulking about now?
Anyway, since we’ve got this unexpected bonus, it’s time to decide what to do with it.
“First, we should investigate it more. It’s too unsettling otherwise.”
Ko Yeon-ju wiggled her right hand suggestively, as if itching to use her ‘Eyes of Temptation.’ I allowed her to use her ability and fell into thought.
Since we were attacked like this, there was no intention of letting them off easy. Most would be killed anyway. Of course, if someone was worth keeping alive, we’d spare them—but only those necessary. They must have realized this, which is why they remained silent and resigned.
But after hearing Ko Yeon-ju, a fire suddenly ignited inside me. Somehow, I didn’t feel like giving them a merciful death.
“Hm?”
At that moment, something caught my eye. Given the situation, Vivian was nervously biting her nails, glancing around. In front of her was a pot still bubbling with foam.
Suddenly,
“Oh…”
A good idea struck me.
The next morning dawned.
I woke up and immediately kicked the dozing sentry awake, ordering the camp to be cleaned up for negligence in vigilance. Lee Yoo-jung and Jin Su-hyun got up sluggishly, grumbling quietly. After all, twenty-eight naked bodies were neatly stacked in one corner of the camp. It would be quite a hassle to dispose of them.
We gained little from last night’s attack. After prolonged interrogation, we decided to execute them all. They remained silent, invoking their right to remain silent, and even the Eyes of Temptation yielded no useful information. The Third Eye was no better. The only thing we learned was that they attacked despite knowing we were a mercenary clan.
However, their calm acceptance of death shifted when Vivian’s food was fed to them.
At first, they refused to eat. But when forced, signals came quickly. How to describe their expressions? It’s hard to put into words.
As we forced down second and third bowls, their reactions changed by the moment. By the second bowl, they cursed—specifically, asking where we got such awful food. By the third, they were begging and crying, pleading for mercy, even asking to be killed, just to die with dignity.
But we didn’t stop. When the fourth bowl went down, many suddenly fell silent. They had overdosed on the ‘drug’ and lost their minds. No matter how much we prodded, they didn’t respond, so we granted them rest in that state.
Perhaps this incident was connected to the vagrants, but for now, we treated it as a minor event during the expedition. At least, for now.
After burning the bodies and thoroughly cleaning the camp, we had a simple meal. Ko Yeon-ju and Im Han-na quickly prepared the food, worried Vivian might take over again, so we managed a proper breakfast.
With everything ready, I announced our departure without wasting a moment.
Under clear skies and bright weather, we stepped into the forest.
The forest grew denser. Surrounded by thick trees and overgrown bushes, I found myself longing for the open plains we’d been seeing for so long. Some bushes reached waist-high, naturally slowing our march.
The forest became so rough it felt almost hostile. The path had long since vanished, and we could barely tell north from south.
Im Han-na had started confidently leading us but gradually slowed, eventually stepping cautiously with each footfall. While caution was good, her pace was too slow, so I took the lead.
After two uses of our transport ability, we were close to our destination and roughly knew the location. I swung my sword, cutting through the thick underbrush as I advanced. One by one, the clan members quietly raised their weapons and began clearing the path more actively.
How much time had passed?
Suddenly, the dense forest abruptly opened, making walking easier. Looking up, a wide clearing about a hundred meters across appeared. Scorched bushes and crookedly cut trees suggested previous users had been here before.
“Are we here?”
Someone whispered, but I slowly shook my head. Not yet, but we were close enough to say we were almost there.
With obstacles gone, I marched leisurely for about five minutes, crossing the clearing until the forest blocked our path again. I stopped and quietly pointed straight ahead with my index finger. There, hidden among bushes and trees, stood a modest-sized hill blending seamlessly into the surroundings.
“Huh? Where? Where?”
“Isn’t that it? The hill.”
Murmurs rose behind me. Understandable—if I hadn’t looked carefully, I might have missed it too. The hill was perfectly camouflaged with the landscape.
Before it was luckily discovered, this clearing must have been a dense forest, so it’s no wonder it remained hidden all this time. I suspect it’s not just a simple optical illusion—there’s probably some kind of magical concealment at work.
With that in mind, I cautiously approached the hill, keeping my senses sharp.
Circling around the hill, it didn’t take long before I spotted an entrance resembling a mine shaft. We halted our march and formed a perimeter around the opening, staring into it.
The earthen entrance stood about five meters tall but gradually narrowed as it descended. No matter how much I strained my eyes, I couldn’t see the end. Only an endless, swirling darkness stretched out like a black hole—almost as if it were waiting to swallow us whole.
“There are definitely signs that people have gone in, but almost no traces of anyone coming out,” Go Yeon-ju observed, already crouching near the entrance to examine the ground. Kim Han-byeol looked visibly uneasy.
“There really aren’t any signs of anyone coming back?”
“Not none at all, but very few. Still…”
“But?”
“Well, we’ll only know how far they went once we go in ourselves. If they just lingered near the entrance and turned back, those tracks don’t mean much.”
Go Yeon-ju shrugged and stood up from her crouch. The clan members fell silent, tension slowly rising.
After a brief pause, I called for a rest under the pretense of equipment checks. Once everyone was ready, I stood and spoke.
“We’re going in. Everyone, take your positions.”
One by one, the clan members rose and quietly took their places. I watched silently until I noticed a woman quietly stepping back. I spoke up.
“Im Hanna. Let’s switch.”
“Huh?”
“I said, let’s switch. I want you to lead.”
“Me…? Oh, yeah. Sure.”
Though she agreed immediately, a flicker of hesitation crossed Im Hanna’s face, as if she didn’t quite understand why she was stepping back. It wasn’t just her—there were subtle, awkward glances from others around us, all directed not at Im Hanna, but at me.
My head started spinning again, but I forced the feeling away.
“…Alright, we’re moving in.”
Taking my place as the keeper in the center, I quietly gave the signal to proceed.
Moments later, the sound of boots descending the dirt steps echoed through the silent, dark tunnel.
---------------------------= Author’s Note =---------------------------
I’m 16 minutes late posting this—sorry about that.
Something strange happened near the end of today’s writing session.
As I typed “We’re going in. Everyone, take your positions,” I accidentally hit the ‘ㅎ’ key while typing ‘positions’ (진형), and suddenly the screen filled with “We’re going in. Everyone, jinhㅎㅎㅎㅎㅎㅎㅎㅎㅎㅎㅎㅎㅎㅎㅎㅎㅎㅎㅎㅎㅎㅎㅎㅎㅎㅎ….” The ‘ㅎ’ just kept going.
I panicked and mashed Enter, Space, and Backspace repeatedly, but it kept going for nine pages straight before finally stopping. Those pages were completely covered in ‘ㅎ’s. It might have been a glitch, but scrolling through it gave me the creeps—it looked like a sinister, eerie laugh, like “hihihihihi” or something.
At the time, the air was stuffy, so I’d opened a window to ventilate, but I kept glancing nervously to the side while writing. Maybe I’m just sensitive, but even though I enjoy scary stories, I really hate actually seeing or reading genuinely frightening things. So this whole thing just made me uneasy. ㅜ.ㅠ