In the Name of God - vanish into fiction

‘I’m not the only one surprised. Lee Sunho must be too.’

I worried that I might be unintentionally giving him a trauma.

After coughing violently until my body felt like it was breaking, my vision began to blur. I could feel my consciousness snapping in and out.

I knew I could not collapse here and be taken to a hospital.

My current body had been forcibly adjusted to match the little lifespan I had left.

Having once died, I had no idea what a hospital would diagnose. Surely it would never come back normal.

‘No hospital.’

I thought of the large man who had snuck into my house every night after I returned from the dungeon to check my condition. If a hospital were to tell him that I was gravely ill, he would never let it go.

He is Seong Do‑yoon’s…

“Cough, cough!”

I coughed up more blood, the dark red liquid soaking the front of Lee Sunho’s shirt.

“L-Lee Sunho…”

I stammered his name.

“I’m fine… so… no hospital…”

I could not continue my sentence. Blood I could not fully expel dripped from the corner of my mouth.

“…Understood. I won’t go to the hospital.”

Thankfully, he understood my unfinished words.

Perhaps reassured, my blurred vision suddenly collapsed completely.

***

Lee Sunho quietly looked down at the unconscious Seong Do‑yoon.

Had it not been for the faint, uneven breaths, he might have assumed Seong Do‑yoon was already dead. His appearance was utterly pitiful.

There was no trace of the smile that had been on Lee Sunho’s face. Only a dark and chilling aura remained.

Carelessly ignoring the blood on his own clothes, Lee Sunho gently lifted Seong Do‑yoon. Blood trickled down his mouth, wetting his chest again.

Looking down at Seong Do‑yoon with a complicated expression, he spoke.

“Retrieve the core.”

The moment he spoke, his long shadow quivered. From beneath it, a black form slowly emerged.

It was a woman in a black uniform with long hair reaching her waist. Two small daggers, resembling animal fangs, were strapped to her hips.

The woman, rising from Lee Sunho’s shadow, bowed as if to show obedience, then walked toward the dead Lizardman Warrior.

Her sword appeared for only a brief moment.

Her blade easily cut open the chest of the fallen Lizardman Warrior. With thin, gloved fingers, she extracted the round core embedded in its chest.

Wiping the green blood from the core with a handkerchief, she politely offered it to Lee Sunho.

“Will you absorb it?”

“No. Leave it to someone appropriate and hand it over to the Association.”

Glancing at the core briefly, Lee Sunho looked away without hesitation.

“That way, ‘plausibility’ is maintained.”

“Understood.”

As Lee Sunho left the boss room, the woman bowed deeply and followed silently.

Then four sets of footsteps approached along the path.

The two other parties, having each defeated their bosses at separate routes, were arriving here.

“Oh? Finished already? What a shame.”

The party members’ words fell silent as their gaze landed on Seong Do‑yoon coughing blood and collapsed. Their attention quickly shifted to the two mutilated human corpses behind him, then to the woman of unusual demeanor.

“What the hell is this…”

“Clear them.”

Lee Sunho interrupted the party member and gave an order. In an instant, the woman seemed to vanish.

A red line streaked through the air toward the four party members.

Thud, thud.

All four heads fell almost simultaneously.

Lee Sunho calmly walked among the bodies collapsing from decapitation, careful not to jolt Seong Do‑yoon in his arms.

The woman’s shadow, trailing behind him, spread across the area. It swallowed all human corpses in an instant, leaving not a single drop of blood behind.