Saving My Favorite in a Doomed World

‘It’s almost time.’

 

The jungle-like scene on the rooftop gradually lost its form. It was possible because the speed of burning was faster than the speed at which plants grew.

 

Even amidst the fierce heat, Cha Jaeha remained calm.

 

His clothes were also untouched by the flames. Jaeha unbuttoned the cuff of his surprisingly intact shirt and rolled it up to his elbow.

 

The accumulated ashes formed a thin line encircling him like a belt. Jaeha gathered the endlessly burning fire with one hand. Acrid smoke enveloped the surroundings, but this too quickly disappeared with the cool breeze.

 

“Screeech—!”

 

He turned his gaze towards the sound of the monster’s cry.

 

Unlike the burnt jungle, the monster’s form became clearer than before.

 

It looked as if it was draped in a swamp, with sticky mud flowing down its tree-bark-like surface.

 

The monster’s core was a tree. Huge tree joints formed human-like feet, legs, ribs, and arms. Its mouth, unlike a human’s, had a long protruding beak. He could see sharp teeth inside the beak when the monster roared.

 

Dark green vines once again tightly wrapped around the wooden skeleton. The monster rooted its legs, encased in hardened mud, into the building’s ceiling. The monster anchored its mud-covered legs into the building’s ceiling. Although its upper body flailed humorously, its gigantic size made this situation no laughing matter.

 

That huge body must not be allowed to become free.

 

The gradually cracking outer walls of the building were saying the same thing. If the firmly planted roots spread outward, the impact would have a chain reaction on the entire building.

 

Whoosh.

 

The flames surged once more. If the entire building collapsed onto the monster, that might work.  But, he had to focus on one spot.

 

“Flame—.”

 

“Wait a moment.”

 

Startled by the sudden presence, Cha Jaeha looked at the hand on his shoulder. The long, clean fingers showed no signs of hardship.

 

But what bothered him more was.

 

‘When did he get this close-?’

 

He hadn’t noticed. Even though he had come this close.

 

Was this possible? That an F-rank could completely escape an S-rank’s field of vision? Even if he had been preoccupied with the monster, it was incomprehensible.

 

“Mr. Jaeha. You’re thinking of blowing up the entire building, right?”

 

Seemingly unaware of such a reaction, Hwashin lightly nodded forward, gesturing with his chin. Cha Jaeha also withdrew his gaze from him and refocused on the situation. It didn’t matter right now.

 

“Yes, I am.”

 

“So, about that, there’s a child over there. I just found out myself, but I thought I should let you know.”

 

Cha Jaeha’s eyebrows furrowed. His expression that turned menacing would have made people shriek.

Oh my, how scary.

 

“…Is that true?”

 

Hwashin shrugged his shoulders.

 

“Why would I lie?”

 

Jaeha quickly quelled the flames and stared seriously at the building. Hwashin casually asked a question. His tone was so light it made one doubt if there was really a kid inside.

 

“What do you want to do?”

 

‘Well, if it were me, I wouldn’t care.’

 

A kid dying wouldn’t be the end of the world, and sometimes people died in unfortunate accidents anyway. It was impossible to care about every single one.

 

Yes, at least that was how it was where Elric lived.

 

In that place, death was so common that paying attention to each life would turn life itself into hell. To avoid creating a living hell, one had to give up. Either way.

 

Elric, Hwashin, knew this from experience and had long given up on such a way of living. A life calculating time versus efficiency, cost versus performance, was best.

 

– You’re more inhuman than me, a dragon. You’re the complete opposite of the hero you always talked about.

 

Yes, Dragon.

 

‘Because he’s the complete opposite. That’s what I like about him.”

 

It was too profound to explain his complex feelings in one word or sentence.

 

He liked how a guy with a few screws loose trained day and night to save complete strangers, and he remembered how that guy would jump into hell to save even those who insulted him with those abilities.

 

‘If you ask if I understand, the answer would be no.’

 

But Elric, Hwashin, loved the stories of the comrades working alongside that screw-loose Cha Jaeha.

 

To Hwashin’s question, Cha Jaeha answered without a moment’s hesitation.

 

“For someone in this profession, saving someone is not an option.”

 

His eyes were fierce.

 

“I will save them.”

 

Despite being anxious himself, he tried to hide it.

 

A small laugh escaped him. It was exactly the image of Cha Jaeha he had in mind. Hwashin, hiding his rising smile, listed his prepared response.

 

“Alright then. But if you approach, the monster might uproot itself and move. The building will collapse and the kid will die. So…I’ll go to the kid. I’ll save the kid, and you, Mr. Cha Jaeha, can kill the monster. How about that?”

 

Hwashin pointed alternately at himself and Cha Jaeha.

I’ll save, you kill.

 

“You’re going to save the kid?”

 

At the question filled with suspicion and doubt, Hwashin laughed joyfully.

 

“Hahaha, I’m a hero too, you know. And I’m the one who told you about the kid. Let me at least do this.”

 

He added that it would be even better if Cha Jaeha trusted him.

 

Hwashin had no particular desire to save the child. But he didn’t need to hear Jaeha’s hatred by saying something like, ‘Well, nobody will know, so it’s fine if the kid dies, right?’.

 

“Shall we start?”

 

Hwashin’s eyes curved downward. With a bright smile, he passed by Cha Jaeha’s side so quickly that the flames he had created swayed. With that speed, he wouldn’t be detected by the monster either.

 

‘No way he’s an F-rank.’

 

Anyway, while Hwashin saved the child, Cha Jaeha would draw the monster’s attention as much as possible. That was his goal.

 

He couldn’t directly attack the monster, and he couldn’t provoke it to the point where it would uproot itself in anger.

 

Jaeha dashed in the opposite direction from Hwashin. He lightly jumped into the air and attacked the stems extending from both sides of the monster.

 

The flames that burst out from his palm in a spherical shape simultaneously exploded the ends of the stems.

 

“Kuuuh…! D…ad…”

 

‘It can speak?’

 

This monster was unusual in many ways. Basically, monsters from gates couldn’t speak. It meant they couldn’t communicate. At most, they could only scream with sounds like “Keuek, kueouk-“.

 

But this monster just spoke. And it spoke clearly enough for him to understand. …The amount of things he needed to report was increasing.

 

“Done!”

 

A voice shouting “Done!” came from afar.

 

Jaeha gradually slowed down and stood in front of the building. To his left, he saw Hwashin holding a child, disappearing around a corner.

 

‘They’re far apart anyway. If I aim accurately at the monster, I don’t have to worry about them getting hurt by the fire.’

 

Yes, it was fine. This much was manageable.

 

He took a deep breath. From the muscles of his lower abdomen, a hot sensation surged up. It spread through his organs, up to his throat. Every cell grew hotter and hotter.

 

“Bloom.”

 

Cha Jaeha opened his palm wide. A small fireball blossomed above his palm. The flames surrounding the fireball moved rapidly, forming a ring around it.

 

It grew bigger. And bigger. It became as large as his head, then transformed into a massive sphere with a diameter roughly his height.

 

He needed to burn and kill the monster in one shot. If he failed and only burned part of it, there was a possibility the monster’s main body might move to other connected stems.

 

Hwashin, holding the sniffling child, stopped right in front of the rooftop door.

 

Marvelous beauty. How many times had he seen it in novels? The vivid descriptions still remain clearly in his memory.

 

「A place where one is trained by fire to cleanse sins. That place was purgatory. People watched in speechless awe at the other dimension unfolding on his palm. The oppressive force seemed capable of snatching the souls of the living. Yet, the inescapable beauty of the flames was undeniable. Not just one color, but purgatory was painted with infinite fires, taking the form of a sphere.

 

“Blossom, Purgatory Sphere.”

 

An endless hell. A miniature globe depicting the world in which he lived. The Purgatory Sphere blossomed.」

 

“To think I’d see that with my own eyes.”

 

Of course, its size and completeness weren’t perfect yet. That was why it was beautiful. The flickering sparks and shadowed ground.

 

“Haha.”

 

Even in this extreme situation, his heart pounded with joy, excitement, anticipation, and anxiety for the future.

 

“Waaah—”

 

But it seems this child can’t handle it yet. Hwashin naturally wrapped his hands around the child’s small hips and held the child’s head to his chest.

If you cry, Jaeha will get distracted, little one.

 

In the end, it seemed the child’s frightened cry reached Cha Jaeha’s ears. He hesitated, unable to throw the flame he held in his hand.

 

‘Ah, I want to see more.’

 

No choice then. Gently stroking the child’s hair, Hwashin shouted towards Jaeha.

 

“It’s noisy, so I’ll just go down!”

 

Though he really didn’t want to go down.

 

The way down to the first floor was easy. All the vines and plants were heading to the rooftop to reinforce the main body. Hwashin, while holding the child, also repaired broken walls here and there, in case Cha Jaeha’s Purgatory Sphere might affect the building.

 

When they reached the first floor, they were greeted by an armored vehicle from the military and Jeong Mueum and Yoo Jian.

 

“Chan!”

 

A man with a puffy face ran over to the child. He bowed repeatedly, looking tearful. Normally, one would give formal responses like “It’s nothing.” or “No, you did well holding on.” but Hwashin just waved his hand casually and answered.

 

“Yeah, yeah.”

 

He raised his head and looked at the building’s rooftop. The Purgatory Sphere covered it in a huge semicircular shape.

 

The fire burned the entire area.

 

With the main body gone, the vines clinging to the building’s exterior crumbled to dust and floated upward, only to turn black and fall down in clumps. Soldiers, waiting nearby, moved efficiently to clear the remaining debris.

 

Jung Mueum, seeing the scene, murmured lowly.

 

“It’s over.”

 

Yoo Jian clutched her head.

 

“Just thinking about writing the report later is horrifying…”

 

***

 

The building was said to be scheduled for repairs. In the first place, there could have been no place in the building where the monster passed once. To begin with, it was impossible for any part of a building that a monster had passed through to remain intact. Since national funds were required for the repairs, it would take at least a month from approval to reopening.

 

The place where Mueum and Jian had left.

 

Yellow tape surrounded the empty building. The military that had been on standby also returned to their positions once the gate was completely closed.

 

Hwashin climbed the stairs once again where no one was present.

 

“Hmm.”

 

On the rooftop.

 

He inspected every corner but found no major issues. There were some scorch marks on the white floor and railing, but that was about it.

 

Leaning against the creaky railing, he propped his chin on his hand.

 

There were no remaining embers, and the parts he had worried about were not seen anywhere.

 

“I am glad.”

 

“About what?”

 

A man stepped out from the darkness.

 

“You startled me.”

 

The man in a black suit who stared blankly at Hwashin, who replied that he was startled, stood next to him with a still expressionless face.

 

It was Cha Jaeha.