“I don’t like this plan,” Kim Hajun said as he stared at the massive tentacle in the black sky above him. It had multiple suckers, and they were all larger than Kim Hajun’s body. There were hundreds of writhing filaments on it like a field of pink, fleshy wheat. Anything the suckers touched would have a hard time getting out. Behind Kim Hajun, Vur was standing next to Lindyss with his arms crossed.
“Why don’t you like the plan?” Lindyss asked. “You personally get to contribute in stopping an Oebu Sin. You dedicated your life to getting this chance, and now you have it.”
Kim Hajun stared up at the tentacle. The ground beneath him was gray and foamy, the floor a flowing field of brown hills. The cursed elf had a point. If he could walk along the Wisty’s leg to reach its head, he could give it a message that would … save the tower? Rather than trying to destroy the tower—in Kim Hajun’s opinion—the Wisty was acting more like a cat fending off a raccoon from snatching its food. “This is more like pioneering a path to Erde rather than saving the tower, like the bonus chapter after the last chapter in a game.”
“Is there not an Oebu Sin?” Lindyss asked, gesturing towards the black sky.
“Yes, it’s there,” Kim Hajun said and sighed. “I appreciate you giving me the chance to accomplish my goal; although I don’t think I’m quite ready for it, sometimes, games have twists, and I have no choice but to deal with it and hope I survive.” He looked at Lindyss. “Out of curiosity, if I’m not able to accomplish the task, do you have a backup plan?”
“That depends,” Lindyss said.
The corners of Kim Hajun’s lips turned down. “On…?” he asked, raising an eyebrow and leaning his head forward.
“Whether or not your feelings would get hurt if I said yes,” Lindyss said. She raised an eyebrow at him. “Would they?”
Kim Hajun blinked. “A little, yes,” he said. A second later, a cold shiver ran down his spine, and his body stiffened.
“Then, no,” Lindyss said with a soft smile, “there’s no backup plan. If you die, we’ll have to struggle to find a solution without you.”
Kim Hajun swallowed. So, failing to accomplish the task did mean death. He had hoped that wasn’t the case. As for whether or not he cared if Lindyss was telling the truth or not about there being no backup plan, he didn’t let it show on his face. “Okay,” Kim Hajun said. “What exactly am I supposed to do though?”
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“Let’s go,” Lindyss said. “He agreed.”
“Wait, what?” Kim Hajun asked as an ocean-blue dragon’s claw wrapped itself around his body.
Vur’s polymorph into a dragon took an instant to complete. He grabbed and placed Lindyss on his head before leaping and jumping towards the tentacle. His wings flapped, and his body surged forwards, leaving the ground behind.
Kim Hajun watched the rolling field of brown hills shrink and turn into the wrinkled root of a massive tree. He looked up, the suckers of the Wisty growing larger with every passing second as they got closer. When Vur landed on the tentacle, Kim Hajun gulped upon seeing the suckers up close. The pink fleshy strips which made up the sucker were taller than him by several times but only as thick as his wrist.
Vur rolled his eyes up to look at the cursed elf. “What now?” Vur asked.
Kim Hajun raised his head as well to see Lindyss respond, but from his vantage point, he couldn’t see her.
“Now, you throw him in,” Lindyss said.
“Wait,” Kim Hajun said, but it was too late. The dragon paw gripping his body was no longer there, and he was moving through the air towards the wall of pink tentacles within the sucker. Had he been thrown!? His body collided with the tentacles, and they wrapped around his body, covering him with a film of viscous liquid. He struggled, but the tentacles wrapped around his limbs, too numerous for him to fight, and soon, he couldn’t move at all. “H-help!”
Vur blinked at Lindyss, and the cursed elf nodded. “Now that there’s food in its grasp, the next logical step is for the Wisty to bring the food to its mouth,” Lindyss said.
Kim Hajun fell silent and stopped struggling. He was being used as bait. “But why me?”
“Your soul is special; I’m sure you know that,” Lindyss said. “Any other soul wouldn’t attract the Wisty’s interest.”
The tentacle rumbled, causing Vur’s body to shake as if there were an earthquake underneath his feet. The tree root in the distance shrank as the tentacle shifted away, presumably to deliver Kim Hajun from the Wisty’s sucker into its mouth. As the tentacle increased in speed, Kim Hajun’s vision blurred as the fumes from the viscous film clouded his thinking. Faint wails filled his ears, and he swore he saw ghostly faces with wide-open mouths staring at him, reaching for him with bony, wispy hands.
“Oh, no you don’t,” Lindyss said, narrowing her eyes and raising her palm at Kim Hajun. A bluish light was leaving Kim Hajun’s body, entering the tentacles, but when Lindyss raised her hand, the lights receded from the tentacles back into Kim Hajun’s body, causing his eyes to roll upwards into his head, showing only the white parts. Lindyss nodded to herself. Now that she denied the Wisty from even having a taste, it’d only work harder to bring him back to its mouth. Or perhaps its beak? It was an octopus after all.