Daejin's knees trembled as he fought to stay upright, his lips parted slightly as if he had just swallowed something far too strong for his body to process.
Despite his struggle, his body seemed to perfectly adapt.
The foggy outline of his chest pulsed once, then again, and the threaded lights that had once drifted lazily around the hall suddenly began to lean toward him, flowing into his body as they melted and floated into his transparent form.
The mana that attached from within him seemed to stretch out like circuits across his body, while the mana on the outside clung to him.
But not in the way they clung to the god.
It felt as if they, too, had found another perfect body to love.
Iskael watched without blinking, his expression calm, while his mind continued to quietly catalogue everything that was occurring.
Daejin's pupils tightened.
His shoulders tensed.
Then his face contorted into something between confusion and disbelief.
"Iskael…" Daejin whispered, voice low. He sounded concentrated, like he was trying to manage his body's reaction to the foreign substance.
Iskael tilted his head slightly.
"Are you okay? How do you feel?" he asked, tone flat with curiosity, but there was still a trace of warmth in his voice, even if it was a fabricated expression.
Daejin swallowed.
"It's…" he paused, then stared at his own hands, lifting them slowly. "It's warm, so warm, and at first it felt so heavy, but now it's so comforting. It doesn't feel like heat, but like my skin is awake."
He blinked hard, then looked around the hall, his face confused at what was before him.
"…And I seem to see some weird stuff now?"
Iskael's gaze sharpened.
"You can see the colors?"
Daejin paused, then looked at Iskael. Iskael was staring at him with deep curiosity, while Daejin looked like he was starting to get a little pissed off, having caught on immediately to what Iskael had been scheming this entire time.
"It's very beautiful," Daejin said slowly pushing aside his feelings to cherish what was before him.
"These Aurora looking threads of light, floating in all colors. Is this what the god meant by mana? They're everywhere. I didn't see them before..."
A small spark of satisfaction rose in Iskael, quick and bright, then disappeared into the same controlled emptiness he always wore.
'Haha.'
'Yea, there was no way he would die. Of course I knew his perfect body would adapt.'
Daejin exhaled, then forced a laugh, an easy laugh.
"...Anyways your really insane."
Iskael ignored the claim completely.
"It seemed safe," Iskael said loosely, almost disappointed by the lack of immediate catastrophe. His head turned away in a cheeky manner, his shoulders perking up.
Daejin stared at him, incredulous.
"Ah yes, 'safe.' You hand me some mystery gum in the afterlife, probably one of your many randomly made concoctions, tell me to eat it, let my guard down by convincing me it's just normal gum, and your conclusion is 'it seems safe.'"
Daejin looked really annoyed. He towered over Iskael, his height six feet four inches, and at any moment he could practically stomp on him.
Iskael looked up in a curious and innocent way, like a child looking at something he just discovered, somehow easily dispelling Daejin's anger.
And after knowing his trick worked once more, his eyes drifted back to his palm, where he had been forming a second sphere.
"…Kael."
"I'm sorry. That was wrong of me," Iskael admitted, speaking soft spoken, as he immediately cut Daejin off before speaking.
"I know it could have hurt you. I really I'm sorry."
Daejin's face hardened for half a second, then he scoffed, his body clearly stuck between deciding whether to be angry or relieved.
Iskael looked up at him.
Daejin held his gaze, but the irritation did not hold. It never held with Iskael for long.
Even when Daejin knew Iskael was a bastard, even when he knew Iskael was morally wrong in ways that did not match his quiet voice, there was something about being looked at by him that made the world slow down.
A terrifying comfort.
Daejin's chest rose and fell, then he waved one hand loosely.
"…Whatever. Whatever."
Then his expression shifted, nostalgia surfacing in his eyes.
"The way you phrase your sorry, it's like you haven't done some stupid shit like this before."
Iskael's mouth tilted faintly.
"You let me," he replied.
"That was middle school," Daejin hissed, but the smile that crept onto his face betrayed him.
Iskael and Daejin began chuckling softly.
Iskael's eyes lowered for a moment, and memories flickered like film fragments, of the things they did to get stronger, to survive in the underworld.
The ludicrous things they got up to, and the things they cast aside to grow.
What were a bunch of middle schoolers doing, looking at the whole underground like it was their playground?
Iskael's chuckles soon calmed, too controlled for a boy their age.
He pushed it away before the warmth could settle.
He turned slightly, as if to finally bring the sphere to his own mouth.
But before he could test it himself, the threads in the air jolted, just as when that mysterious entity had appeared the first time.
An overwhelming pressure flooded the hall, forcing every wandering conversation to choke back into silence.
Light gathered at the far end of the hall.
And immediately, as if there was no transition, the god appeared again with the students.
He stood as if he had never left, hands clasped behind his back, eyes bright with amusement that never felt kind.
Around him, several figures floated down gently, lowered like feathers despite having no true weight.
Iskael noticed Serene catching the ground first.
Her feet touched the stone with an awkward stumble, then she caught herself, her eyes slightly wide and her breath shaky.
Her gaze snapped toward Iskael immediately, like a reflex.
Then she moved. With nothing to hold her back, she stormed to that boy's side.
"Iska," she said, voice too intimate for the space they stood in, and too honest to be for anyone else.
"Why didn't you save me from the weirdo god? What would have happened if he took me from you forever? What would you be able to do without me?"
She spoke as she reached him and fell into his arms, though not in the same desperate manner as before.
It was smaller, lighter, and far more playful as she pressed her forehead into his chest and clung, trying to get a reaction from Iskael's ever stoic face.
Iskael noticed as she continued to play that immediate, headstrong character even now, but he could clearly see the minute details in her body language.
The tenseness in her shoulders, and the stiffness of her fingers, they all spoke for themselves.
He stood still for a second, then allowed his arms to lift around her without thinking.
Her warmth, even like this, made something twist in him.
She pulled back just enough to look up, brows drawn tight in a scolding expression that did not match how relieved she looked.
"Really…" she whispered sharply. "Why didn't you do anything?"
The intimacy she broadcast spoke measures, like she wanted no one else to bother her while she interrogated him.
Iskael's lips parted.
For a rare moment, his composure hesitated. He searched for the correct response that would not reveal too much, then defaulted to deflecting.
"…Sere," he began, hugging her tighter.
"I'm glad you're back. I'm sorry I couldn't do anything again."
Her eyes widened slightly at the remembrance of "again." She felt bitter. And so did Iskael.
He continued before she could speak.
"At least he wasn't the enemy. I wouldn't know what I'd do if something happened to you again," Iskael said quietly, tone as stoic as always even if it did feel warm.
Serene stared at him, then huffed, irritated, but the irritation collapsed into relief so quickly it almost looked like embarrassment.
She pressed into his chest again, as if punishing him by stealing warmth from him.
Then she noticed Daejin.
Her head turned over Iskael's arm.
A sharp blink.
"…Daejin? Is that the Superhuman Daejin??"
"Huh? Why is Daejin hanging around you, Iska?"
Daejin stiffened, his expression shifting into something casual far too quickly.
"Uh.." he said, then laughed lightly.
"We just bumped into each other and struck up a conversation, as any student would."
Daejin scratched his head, looking a bit embarrassed.
Serene's eyes narrowed.
"…You just bumped into him and started talking with someone like him? Don't you know his rumors?" she spoke, her tone flat with deep suspicion.
Iskael's gaze shifted to Daejin as if telling him not to 'fuck up'.
The expression plastered on Iskael's face felt hollow, carrying no smile, and the intensity of his gaze was frightening enough to make Daejin's spine tighten, as if invisible fingers pressed between his ribs.
Daejin kept his expression steady anyway.
He had always known to keep his identity separated from Kael himself. Always.
"Mm, yes, but rumors shouldn't be something you use to judge someone, don't you know?" Daejin said, smiling as he pointed upward, speaking as if he were a mature old man.
This made Serene feel uncomfortable, and even Iskael had the urge to curse Daejin for his idiocy.
Serene's grip tightened around Iskael again, instinctively anchoring herself, while she studied Daejin like she was trying to read what was not being said.
The god clapped once.
The sound echoed too long.
"As you can see, everyone has returned," he said cheerfully.
"Just as promised."
He looked over the three hundred students as if they were a collection of interesting insects that had survived being drowned.
But then he paused, surprised, as he looked toward one of the people he had taken.
Standing beside her, along with the boy she held in her arms, was one other.
There he stood, lone and towering.
Mana clung to him desperately, clearly having adapted greatly to Daejin's 'Perfect Body.'
"Oh no?" the god murmured.
"Did I forget one more person? Ah, I guess I'll just do a hasty transplant."
"But I guess it won't be as peaceful as the others," he added, a smile plastered on his face.
Daejin looked up, a foreboding feeling devouring his existence.
The god had noticed him and acknowledged his existence, staring deeply into his soul.
Then the god raised his hand.
Iskael and Serene's gazes snapped fully toward Daejin.
So did everyone else.
Force was applied to Daejin's existence.
His body suddenly felt heavy, violently heavy, and pain spread through him as if he were being crushed from the inside.
A burning warmth flooded his being.
"Ughhh…"