For a while, only the emptiness where Roan had vanished remained.
The group stared into that vacant space, no one able to continue speaking.
Raen was the first to run to Maho.
The lingering heat still scorched the air.
Her skin prickled,
and even breathing in hurt.
Raen felt her breath catch in her throat.
Each time the heat entered her lungs, her throat stung.
Even so, she could not stop.
Before calling Maho’s name,
Raen swallowed once.
Then she drew closer
and called softly.
“Maho. Are you all right?”
Maho was breathing roughly.
Something that might have been sweat or ash clung to his forehead.
“Raen… stay back. Hah.”
Maho took a breath,
then muttered through clenched teeth.
“The power of the dragon… really is a burden.”
Just then, Rangnan slowly stood with Muryeong’s support.
His fingertips were still trembling.
Rangnan slowly closed his eyes, then opened them.
And at last, he spoke.
“The operation… failed.”
No one nodded.
As if agreeing would make it truly over.
As if denying it would mean they had to fight again.
And so they became calm.
Because if emotion surged first,
the “level” they had just felt would come back to them.
Bido opened his palm, then clenched it again.
A gesture to confirm that his hand was still his own.
Miryeong saw it, but said nothing.
The moment words attached themselves, so would the trembling.
Right now, they did not even have time to tremble.
Muryeong spoke in a low voice.
“Rangnan… what in the world was that? Just now… what happened?”
Rangnan was silent for a moment,
then looked toward Maho.
Then he shifted his gaze to the place where Roan had disappeared.
“That… was divine power.”
Bido asked quietly.
“Divine power…?”
Rangnan nodded.
“The spiritual power of the moon. Originally, it is power from the domain of the gods.”
“It is not something a human can handle recklessly.”
“But just now, something carved away Roan’s soul,”
“and forcibly connected him to that power.”
When those words ended, the air itself cooled first.
Bido unconsciously curled and uncurled his fingers.
A chill ran down his spine.
The phrase “carved away his soul” sounded far too simple.
What had been carved was not a number, but a person,
and explaining it in a single sentence made it all the more horrifying.
Miryeong did not open her mouth.
Instead, she drew her chin in ever so slightly.
Maho steadied his breath and spat the words out as if cutting in.
“What the hell. There was nothing about that.”
Rangnan answered quietly.
“No. It was not power Roan could originally use. I… only felt it just now.”
Maho frowned.
“…What are you talking about?”
Rangnan slowly looked around.
Heat still lingered in the air.
“This is not a conversation we can have here.”
After taking a brief breath,
Rangnan spoke firmly.
“We’re going back.”
No one denied those words.
Everyone was exhausted.
It was not a matter of having moved their bodies.
Something of a different level—
just the fact that they had faced something alien
had worn down their minds.
Miryeong scanned their surroundings and said,
“First… we should return to where we left our baggage and rest a little.”
Rangnan nodded.
“Yes. Get ready.”
Maho listened in silence,
then glanced down at Raen once.
Then he turned his gaze to Rangnan and spoke slowly.
“Rangnan. Raen and I will come with you.”
He did not explain the reason at length.
But his expression was enough.
He could not leave Raen exposed to the danger they had just seen.
Rangnan quietly nodded.
“Fine.”
—
The group asked no more questions.
There were no answers either.
They simply moved their feet.
To get even a little farther away
from the place where Roan had disappeared.
The remaining heat followed behind their backs.
The smell of burning clung to their collars.
Each time they breathed in, their throats stung.
Some limped,
and some clutched their arms.
Someone silently raised a waterskin and swallowed just one mouthful.
That one mouthful did not miraculously wash away the pain.
Even so, it kept them from collapsing.
Once the formation settled, everyone walked at the same pace, steps of “endurance.”
If they went too quickly, they would fall.
If they went too slowly, they would be cut off from behind.
Bido looked only at the back of the person ahead.
The sword strap over his shoulder dug into his flesh.
As the sweat cooled, it hurt even more.
The road was still dark.
The moonless night had no light.
By relying on the back of the person in front,
they barely managed not to lose direction.
Raen did not walk ahead, nor did she fall behind.
She simply—
remembered that distance where she had stood still.
The line where she had been able to “feel” Roan,
and unconsciously matched her steps to it.
How long had they walked?
Raen stopped.
She exhaled briefly and said in a low voice,
“We’re here….”
Even those words felt long.
Right now, everyone simply wanted to rest.
The place where they had gathered their baggage.
The place where they had waited.
As soon as the group arrived there,
they sank down one by one like people whose strings had been cut.
Some lay flat on their backs on the ground,
while others hugged their knees.
The sounds of people catching their breath broke out here and there, then subsided.
No one looked at one another’s faces for long.
Raen rubbed her arm, then stopped and quietly looked down at her palm.
Maho pretended not to see it, only sweeping his gaze once around the area.
Rangnan spoke quietly.
“For today, we rest here first.”
He surveyed the surroundings once,
then raised his voice a little.
“Is anyone injured?”
No answer came immediately.
Everyone caught their breath first.
Kalen rubbed his forearm.
Red marks had risen where he had been thrown by the shockwave and scraped himself.
Gareun, too, roughly wiped away the scratches on the back of his hand.
Yeonhwa rolled up her sleeve
and checked the small burn mark on the inside of her wrist.
Taejin pressed the nape of his neck, then shook his head.
“Nothing serious.”
Muryeong added briefly,
“It’s bearable.”
In truth, there was nothing that could truly be called an injury.
Being thrown, scraped, scratched.
Skin lightly seared by heat.
Roan had only “blocked” until the very end.
Though he could have turned his blade and cut them down,
he had not moved that way even once.
The most dangerous moment had been separate.
When Maho unleashed the power of the dragon—that heat.
Raen was still rubbing her arm.
Her skin prickled,
and each time she breathed in, her shoulder went numb.
Maho was simply enduring the backlash of the power he had unleashed.
He sat slumped a short distance away, breathing roughly.
The tips of his fingers trembled faintly.
Once with his eyes closed,
then twice.
He focused only on matching his breathing.
Rangnan gave a short nod.
“Good.”
He looked back.
“Those who can move right away. Set up the tents first. Keep the fire small.”
Those who had barely taken part in the battle moved quietly.
Bags were opened, cloth was spread, and stakes were driven in.
No one spoke loudly.
Right now—
they wanted to rest as soon as possible.
—
The camp preparations ended, and each person went to their place.
The fire was lit small.
The embers lived like breath,
and the wind licked over them as it passed.
Because the fire was small, the darkness felt closer.
Only the place the firelight reached temporarily became “inside,”
and everything beyond it was once again “outside.”
Someone tried to dry a damp hem, then stopped.
If the fire grew larger, it would draw eyes.
If eyes gathered, the events of today would grow large again.
And so everyone withdrew their hands.
Maho opened and closed his fingertips once.
Even as the heat drained away, his hands trembled.
He could not tell whether that trembling was the backlash of his power,
or because of Roan’s “divine power” that he had seen earlier.
A little later, Maho was sitting before the fire.
Rangnan sat across from him as well.
Maho’s breathing was still rough.
The sound of hot breath scraping past his throat.
Maho opened his mouth.
“What happens… to Roan now?”
Rangnan did not answer right away.
Instead, he watched the fire for a moment,
then spoke slowly in a low voice.
“Divine power is not a force a human soul can withstand.”
Maho frowned.
“Then, if… Roan keeps using it?”
Rangnan slowly nodded.
“He will gradually lose himself.”
After those words, Rangnan lowered his head for a moment.
He pressed his lips together once,
then quietly added, as if bringing up a name he hated.
“Yes… if that continues, he may truly become the ‘Moon Demon’ the world speaks of.”
Maho let out a short breath.
“What are we supposed to do now?”
Rangnan could not answer right away.
Instead of an answer, his gaze drifted toward the tents.
Toward the place where Bido would be resting.
“I don’t know.”
And after a beat, he continued.
“For now… we have no choice but to believe.”
As if he had roughly grasped the meaning of those words, Maho twisted one corner of his mouth.
“So it comes down to that in the end.”
For a moment he seemed about to get angry, but soon let it subside.
Then he looked at the fire once more and sighed, speaking quietly.
“Fine. I don’t know anymore either.”
Maho shifted his gaze toward the tent where Raen would be.
“For now… protecting that kid comes first.”
Rangnan was silent for a moment,
then looked at Maho.
“Raen. What is that child to you?”
Maho had no answer right away.
The flames crackled once,
and their light brushed across Maho’s eyes.
“…Who knows.”
It was a voice meant to end it with that brief reply.
But in the end, one more sentence followed.
“Maybe… just atonement.”
As the embers died away,
the darkness grew clearer.
The moonless night was coming to an end.