The Hwan-guk pursuit team was persistent. However, the darkness of the swamp and the pouring rain were on our side. We crossed the border and reached the forbidden land where no one dared to step: the 'Silent Grey Zone.' This was a graveyard for abandoned deserters and outcasts, a place where neither Hwan-guk nor Aran held control.
"Haa... haa... I can't... go any further..."
Yeon-woo collapsed onto the muddy ground. The mark of the dagger I had forcibly snatched earlier remained as a red scar on her neck. She didn't look at me. She just stared at her rain-soaked hands with vacant eyes.
"Just a little further. Until we reach where that smoke is rising..."
I reached out to support her, but even before my hand could touch her, Yeon-woo flinched and drew back, trembling. To her, I was no longer a platoon leader protecting the nation; I was the monster itself who shot his own comrades and burned civilians.
Just then, a fortress draped in rusted barbed wire emerged through the grey mist. Barrels of rifles from atop the abandoned ramparts aimed straight at us.
"Who goes there? A dog of Hwan-guk, or a monster of Aran?"
A man dressed in rags shouted from above. He was missing an eye, and black spots caused by the side effects of the Holy Relic bloomed across his face.
"Neither. We are just ghosts who have lost our way!"
At my shout, the gate opened with a grotesque groan. The sight that greeted us inside was harrowing. Deserters begging with severed limbs, blind children, and crazed addicts cackling under the influence of mana poisoning. This was no heaven. It was a massive trash bin for those who couldn't manage to die.
Yeon-woo looked at the scene and burst into a fit of hysterical laughter.
"Haha... is this where we're supposed to live, Lieutenant? Is this the price for you saving me... just to linger on top of this pile of filth?"
Her bitter laughter mixed with the sound of the rain, shredding my heart. I couldn't answer. When I twisted her wrist to take that dagger, perhaps I hadn't given her 'life'—but rather gifted her 'eternal agony.'
Mercy did not exist here in the 'Grey Zone.' Hunger was sharper than morality, and Yeon-woo's eyes were fading, losing their last sparks of life. She stayed huddled in a corner, refusing even the muddy porridge I offered.
"Hey, Mr. Soldier. If you want to keep that girl alive, you'd better put that body to use, shouldn't you?"
The one-eyed man sneered, pointing toward a steel door leading underground. From below, the roars of beasts and the stench of blood vibrated through the air. 'The Pit.' Here, the only currency was blood, and the winner earned the right to a few cans of food.
I took one look at Yeon-woo and descended into the basement without a word.
Inside the iron cage, a massive heap of flesh was already waiting. He was a deserter whose muscles had swollen abnormally due to the side effects of the Holy Relic. He had already lost his human reason; he was more a monster craving slaughter than a man.
"Kill him! Tear him apart!"
The outcasts hammered on the bars, letting out cries of madness. I stood before the monster, gripping only a single rusted dagger. He roared and lunged, his massive fist slamming into my ribs.
Crunch!
My breath hitched as I felt my lungs compress. Hot blood surged up my throat. But I couldn't fall. If I closed my eyes here, it would truly be the end for Yeon-woo, who was up there destroying herself.
"You son of a bitch... if someone's gonna die, it's you!"
I dove under his massive arms and drove the dagger deep into the nape of his neck. He screamed and bit into my shoulder, but I didn't stop—I twisted the blade. His black blood splattered across my face.
Finally, the monster's massive frame shuddered and collapsed to the floor. Drenched in blood, I snatched up the two cans of meat thrown in as the prize. My finger bones were shattered, but I couldn't loosen my grip on those cans.
When I returned to the surface, Yeon-woo was still staring vacantly at the spot where the dagger I had snatched from her once lay. I set the blood-stained cans down in front of her.
"Eat. Whether you want to live or die, this is the price of your life that I sold."
Yeon-woo's eyes trembled. The blood dripping from my body was forming a puddle on the floor. The fact that I had slaughtered someone else just to keep her alive was pushing her into an even deeper circle of hell.
Yeon-woo stared blankly at the blood-stained can. The fresh blood dripping from my shoulder soaked the lid. What she saw wasn't food, but another piece of evidence of the slaughter I had committed.
"Is this... the life you spoke of?"
Yeon-woo picked up the can with trembling hands. But instead of bringing it to her mouth, she pressed the sharp, jagged edge of the lid against her wrist.
"Stop it, please!"
Forgetting the agony in my shattered fingers, I lunged at her. The light of this world had already extinguished in her eyes. She tried with all her remaining strength to drive the sharp metal into her flesh.
"Let go! Let me go! Why are you keeping me trapped in this filthy pool of blood!"
I twisted her wrist, sent the can flying, and pinned her roughly to the floor. The scar on her neck flushed a deep crimson. I growled into her ear like a beast.
"If you want to die, kill me first! Do you have any idea how much blood I've drenched myself in as the price for your life? If you die, all those deaths become meaningless!"
"That's just for your own satisfaction! My soul already burned to death in that storehouse with those children!"
Yeon-woo sobbed, pounding her fists against my chest. They were weak blows, but they dug into my heart deeper than any strike from an augmented soldier. I gripped her hands, binding them, and pressed my forehead against hers on the cold floor.
Both of us, stained with mud and blood, felt each other's breath in that abandoned warehouse. In this place where being alive was a curse rather than a blessing, we had become companions in hell—hating each other, yet unable to let go.