"Why do you like someone who hates you? Are you a pervert?"
"I know, right. I think it's love-hate."
After recalling the conversation I heard a while ago, my heart felt tight again. After seeing Yuanna's unexpected side and the truth, I was terribly confused.
Nevertheless, the conversation between Anata and Yuanna did not reveal all the secrets of this island. There are also problems that are still not resolved yet.
What is the relationship between the Rohade family, the temple, and Jenas?
Also, what is a dimensional door and why does it exist?
What is the 'door' in Jenas' cabin?
-ssssa.
At that time, Eunji who was quietly wrapped around my shoulder, flicked out his tongue. Thanks to him, my mind is back.
However, I immediately sensed a strange smell wafting through my nose. It belatedly came to my mind that the stone wall was full of Tentathionem flowers.
I lit the candle I was holding so that I could examine the wall by the door. As I had seen in my hallucination, red flowers were in full bloom.
I stopped breathing at the sight.
At that time, some yellow pollen got into my nose. Coughing out without my knowledge.
-cough cough.
The wind scattered the yellow pollen of the flowers that densely filled the wall. That's a large amount of pollen.
"Shit!"
Even the single flower Ruzef brought had a severe side effect, and now there are too many of them.
I slumped down. I don't know how Yuanna managed to survive here.
My mind is already spinning. My whole body is hot.
'It hurts.'
It was on a different level from what I had experienced last time. The pain was several times greater than what I had suffered at the time.
I'm far out of my mind. No, rather than losing my mind, it feels like I'm going crazy.
My blood is running dry everywhere. My limbs are shaking. Maybe I'm having a seizure.
I feel like I'm going crazy from this pain, like scrap metal slowly melting from being thrown into boiling lava.
I struggled in such agony for a long time, barely holding on to the last strand of common sense I had.
"You are here?"
An unfamiliar voice came from somewhere.
It sounded like a young boy's voice.
I hastily stretched out my hand toward the voice. Something like the hem of clothes caught in my fingers.
"Help... me..."
Then I felt a hand hugging me.
As the skin touched my body, I felt an intense thirst. Like a human suffering from thirst, I clung to his touch.
"Just stay like this. Please......"
Physical contact alone is not enough. I need a stronger stimulus.
Or else I'll die. It's highly likely if you are poisoned by Tentathionem.
Maybe I really will die.
Anyone, please help me.
***
There is no way to cross the swamp safely. Arthdal and Yuanna had already failed several times in crossing the swamp and retreated.
They wanted to find another way to get to North Island, but since the suspension bridge was broken, this is the only way.
"I think we need to find another way. I don't have enough energy because I haven't eaten anything," said Arthdal as he slumped down on the ground, sighing.
Seeing his body getting thinner, it was no wonder that he had no energy left to walk or talk.
What's the use of knowing how to hunt? Neither he nor Yuanna knows how to groom prey.
"Is there any way?" Yuanna also muttered with a tired face.
As the woman, who always looked relaxed, gave off a gloomy light with a tired face, Arthdal became complicated.
The life and death of Margaret and the others are also unclear, and he is unable to cross over to the North Island. That's the worst.
'I hope Margaret is alive.'
As time passed, Arthdal lost his composure and began to get more and more nervous.
"It is a swampy area, but there are many trees. I think you can cross it if you don't step on the ground, but that won't be easy either."
Unless the trees are close to each other, getting from one tree to another is difficult.
Yuanna, who was listening quietly, clapped her hands with a bright face as if something came to her mind.
"I have a good idea."
Then she began to explain her plan.
Upon hearing the explanation, Arthdal realized that Yuanna was more firmly crazy than he thought.
"Lure monsters into the swamp and step on them? Are you saying so even knowing that it is tantamount to committing suicide?"
"I don't care about my life. I will be the bait," said Yuanna with a firm face.
Arthdal looked at her with a complicated mind.
She was still suspicious, but Yuanna had definitely changed since Margaret and her group had fallen into the river.
It's like she's turned into someone else.
Has everyone on this island turned into someone else? After Margaret, and now even Yuanna......
Arthdal scratched his head and shook his head. "If I leave a saintess as bait and survive alone, I will live with terrible guilt for the rest of my life. I am stupid, but I am not that stupid to betray human dignity."
Arthdal got up and straightened his clothes. Then he looked at Yuanna and said, "Tell me in detail what you're trying to do. I'll cooperate."
***
Jenas hummed as he headed towards the bunker.
Since I planted the seeds of distrust in the rest of the test subjects, my work is over.
"Because it's the last experiment."
I have to make sure.
Muttering slowly, Jenas walked lightly. Now it was time to go and see what Margaret was doing.
'I wonder if the last place I saw was an underground hallway.'
He borrowed the eyes of a monster in the form of a rat to locate her. He thought she would enter through the main door, but she entered through a side door that he had long forgotten about.
Jenas burst into a joyful laugh. "Anyway, it's fun."
It's the first time in a thousand years.
A world from another dimension using unusual objects and unique and varied letters. He had tried thousands of times to open the dimensional door to that world.
However, I have never succeeded in passing a person through the dimensional door......
I don't know how the hell she came, where she came from, or what kind of person she really was......
"Finally, success is right in front of me."
There was too much ambiguity to explain that Margaret was just a different person.
But then he found out that she was from another dimension.
Margaret, who had spent the night at Jenas' cabin, once asked him about the bunker.
Unlike other maps, the map she had had 'bunker' written in letters from another world. No one in this world would recognize that it was an underground warehouse with the name 'bunker'.
'I mean, she was careless at the time. How cute.'
As Jenas thought so, he made his way through the thick undergrowth and went deeper into the mountains.
He can't use magic except in a cabin powered by Anata's mana. So, he had to move his body himself, which was a very laborious task.
After clearing away the messy branches and leaves, a flat stone wall covered with moss was revealed.
It didn't look like a door from the outside, but there was a hidden doorknob. Jenas took a look at the keyhole in the doorknob, took a key from his pocket, and easily opened the door.
What he found in the underground he entered was Margaret lying on top of Anata's magic circle.
Ah.
A small snake with silver scales next to her was staring at him, baring its sharp fangs.
"Oh yes, you. I've always been curious."
The little snake slammed its tail against the ground, extremely hostile toward him.
Jenas crossed his arms and glared at the little snake. As his red eyes swept past the snake, it shrank back in surprise. Then, looking timidly, it circled around Margaret and hid its face behind her shoulder.
"You are a monster."
If it was any other monster, he could borrow its eyes easily, but this one was different.
"It was imprinted."
Hard to believe that a monster imprinted on a human.
How fun. Margaret is fun.
Jenas slowly knelt in the magic circle where Margaret was lying and sat down on one knee. Then he ran his hand through her hair.
"...it...hurts..."
Margaret with a red face groaned in pain. It seems certain that she got poisoned by Tentathionem.
Jenas quietly picked up a book that had fallen at her feet. On the cover of the book, it says 《Something More Important Than Survival》.
Until now, he didn't know why Anata created a magic circle here, so he just left it as it was. But in the meantime, something interesting seems to have happened as a result of Margaret discovering the magic circle.
While staring at the book, Jenas noticed remnants of mana overflowing from the magic circle.
"It looks like the magic circle has been activated......"
If left as it is, someone else might steal the remaining mana.
"I'd rather absorb it."
He soon laid his hand on the magic circle drawn under Margaret, who was still unconscious. Blue light leaked out over the geometric patterns.
The leaking light seeped into Jenas' hand. The squatting boy's body began to gradually grow.
Jenas, who was in the body of a 12-year-old boy, suddenly took the form of a young man in his late twenties.
His pure white silver hair fluttered around his neck as his sharp red eyes regained their focus and shone coldly.
"Ha. How refreshing."
His body was not perfect. So, in order to protect his body, he had to use a child's body in normal times. In that state, it was difficult to have a conversation above a certain level.
After absorbing the mana from the magic circle and lifting the forbidden magic he had been using, he was finally able to return to his adult form.
Of course, the moment he used up all the mana he had absorbed, his body would become that of a child again.
Jenas stroked his chin languidly and looked at Margaret who let out a series of painful groans.
"Help... me..."
She reached out and grabbed his ankle.
Jenas didn't budge and just stared at her with eyes full of interest.