Just a moment ago, I was locked in a life-or-death battle with a monster.
But when I came to my senses, I found a horrified Isabel standing right in front of me.
Behind her, beyond her ragged breathing, was a vast lake so deep, its depth couldn’t even be guessed.
‘What kind of sudden development is this?’
I had no idea what had just happened.
Thankfully, Isabel seemed mostly unharmed—aside from her messy hair, a few scratches on her skin, and a small cut on her forehead.
“Why are you here, Isabel?”
“Miss, that’s exactly what I wanted to ask you.”
“Where did the monster go? Why are you alone…”
“Heeheeheehee.”
Suddenly, a spine-chilling laugh rang out from behind us, and my heart nearly gave out on the spot.
For a brief moment, moonlight had spilled over us, but now it was blocked by a sinister shadow. A massive silhouette loomed overhead, as if ready to engulf the entire lake.
I didn’t dare to look back. Barely moving my lips, almost like a ventriloquist, I asked,
“Isabel… are we XX screwed?”
“…”
Isabel closed her eyes in silence, like someone resigned to her fate.
Damn it. Forget figuring things out, we needed to run first.
“Run, Isabel!”
The moment I grabbed Isabel’s arm and pulled her to her feet, a chilling wind swept down from above.
With a whoosh, a massive fist slammed down right where we had been standing just moments ago.
Boom-!
The sheer force of the shockwave sent both me and Isabel flying into the air.
Through the thick cloud of dust, I was forced to face the creature—the monster—and my already shrinking heart clenched in fear.
‘What the hell is that thing?’
This must be what it feels like to see a three-story building walking right at you.
Compared to the monsters we encountered at the entrance of the mountain, this one was on an entirely different level.
It looked like a gym-obsessed monster—massive, muscular, and grotesque, with no eyes or nose… only a wide, grinning mouth.
Despite its size, it had crept up silently. Now, towering over us near the lake, it looked down and grinned.
Schlick—its mouth stretched all the way to its ears, revealing rows of razor-sharp fangs.
One bite from those, and it felt like you’d be saying goodbye to all four limbs.
I glanced back at the lake behind us, then wiped my sweaty hands on my clothes and asked,
“Isabel. By any chance… are you good at swimming?”
“Unfortunately, I’ve never learned.”
“Well, then there’s no helping it.”
Without taking my eyes off the monster—who was now licking its lips at us, annoyed it had missed its punch—I said,
“While I draw its attention, you make a run for the guard station.”
“What? What are you talking about…”
“Now’s not the time to ask questions. Just do exactly as I say.”
I hadn’t chosen country life just to end up as monster food in a place like this.
Sure, Isabel was a good person—but I hadn’t known her that long, and I had no intention of dying a heroic death in her place.
It was close to a gamble, but this was the only plan that gave us both a chance at surviving. So I acted on it.
Right then, the monster let out a hissing laugh as it licked its mouth with a grotesquely long tongue.
Maybe it was just my imagination, but it looked like it was actually enjoying this.
Isabel looked back and forth between the creature and me, lips tightly pressed together, before releasing her grip on the hem of my clothes.
“…You must survive until I return.”
“I’ll do my best. So, Isabel—don’t look back. Just run.”
Thud. Thud. Thud.
Deliberately waiting for the monster to get close, I then rolled across the ground in one swift motion and reached for the shotgun.
I loaded it in a flash and fired every last shell I had straight at the creature.
More specifically, at one part of its massive, rock-hard body that looked vulnerable: its mouth.
Bang! Bang! BANG!
“Kkiaaaaaack!!”
Its roar echoed so loudly it felt like the entire mountain was shaking, the pain slicing through my eardrums like knives and rattling my brain.
I tossed the now-useless shotgun aside and sprinted in the opposite direction from where Isabel had gone.
Having taken a mouthful of bullets, the monster was furious and now focused solely on me.
Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!
Each of its steps felt like ten of mine, and the fear of being overtaken tightened in my chest.
There was no time to look back or check whether Isabel had escaped safely.
And then, just as it lashed out its long tongue, trying to grab me by the waist.
All I could do was run—and at the last possible second, I dove into the lake.
Splash!
Who would’ve thought that all those childhood summers spent swimming in mountain streams with friends would come in handy like this?
This plan only worked because there was a dock not far from the lake’s edge.
‘According to the original story, monsters move much more sluggishly in water.’
I had to reach the dock before that lunatic got mad enough to jump into the lake and chase me.
With that in mind, I swam as if my life depended on it, cutting straight across the center of the lake.
But then my heart rate suddenly spiked, and I felt like I couldn’t breathe.
“…!”
At the same time, a strange force surged up from beneath the water, grabbing hold of me and yanking me downward.
I struggled with everything I had, trying not to sink, but it was no use.
It was as if an invisible hand had wrapped around my entire body, making it impossible to control my breathing.
To make things worse, my entire body began to burn, so hot I thought I might boil from the inside out.
‘So hot.’
It felt like my blood vessels were going to burst any second.
‘Am I really going to die like this?’
Trying to avoid a guillotine ending, only to drown instead?
And then, the pain—like something squeezing the life out of my heart—began spreading through every inch of my body.
Foam bubbled uncontrollably at the corners of my mouth, and the world flipped upside down.
Just as I was about to give in to the suffocating pain and lose consciousness—
A voice cut through the silence of the water, piercing straight into my eardrums.
“What… is this now?”
A person?
Through my blurry vision, I thought I saw something—like a shadow, or dark foliage drifting in the water.
Wait—how could someone speak underwater? I’d never heard of a monster that could speak human language.
But even underwater, the man’s voice rang out clear and sharp, scraping against my eardrums.
Even as I teetered on the brink of death, my mind raced with half-conscious thoughts.
‘Am I hallucinating?’
At that point, I didn’t care what it was—anything or anyone, just get me out of here.
Maybe that desperate plea reached someone, because once again, a low voice spoke, as if answering my silent scream.
“Should I save you?”
For a moment, the voice was so clear and deep, I almost thought someone had actually rescued me.
As I weakly opened my eyes and reached toward the source of the voice, it came closer, laced with a mocking tone.
“You must really want to live, huh?”
I’ll let you live. For now.
With those cryptic words, a strange lightness suddenly swept over my body, and then the world flipped upside down.
“Puh-ha!”
And then, just as I was choking and coughing up the lake water, I gasped at the sudden rush of air.
“…?”
…Why am I sitting on top of a lake?
My vision blurred and cleared in turns, but what filled it wasn’t solid ground—it was calm, glassy water.
For a moment, I feared I might already be dead, standing at the threshold of the afterlife, until I slowly lifted my head.
And then, my eyes met a man’s, his gaze locked on mine with quiet curiosity, as if studying something strange.
“Hello.”
“…”
Was I dreaming?
A man stood on the surface of the lake, backlit by the pale moon, looking down at me in silence.
His face was so unreal, it made me wonder how anyone could look like that.
But before I could take a proper look, his image began to split—one face became two, two became three.
My fevered head made it impossible to think straight.
So I simply sat there, dazed atop the water, staring up at the man in front of me, and asked,
“Who… are you?”
“That’s what I want to ask you. How did you wake me up?”
“…Wake, what?”
“Me.”
He wanted to know how I had awakened him.
Beneath the full moon, the man looked almost unreal, like he didn’t belong in this world.
The early spring wind, still tinged with cold, ruffled his black hair.
As it swept across his face, it revealed pale blue eyes and lips stained a soft red, exhaling a languid breath.
And then, almost to himself, he murmured something under his breath—low, quiet, and filled with meaning.
