The sunset glow stained the Northern Ice Hell a deep crimson.
The Promotion Team, having arrived at Black Tortoise Lake, hurriedly unloaded their filming equipment.
Mujae’s mind was filled with all the warnings Seolpyo had given.
-We must arrive at Black Tortoise Lake before sunset.
“What a beautiful view! Let’s film here before we go~”
Hallakgoong was in his most relaxed mood of the day.
Even Zack seemed to sense something was off and exchanged a look with Mujae.
But with Hallakgoong staring so intently, all Mujae could do was send a desperate telepathic message toward Zack.
‘Don’t do anything! Don’t provoke him!’
Please, let Zack understand. Mujae hurried to set up his own camera right there.
“Okay? The camera will take care of filming on its own, so let’s go.”
“Aw~ The scenery’s so pretty! Let’s take it ourselves before we go.”
“No, Zack will catch a cold.”
Using Zack as an excuse, Mujae hurried his steps.
Beneath the white snow, a mirror-like slick black ice was hidden among the glaciers.
Black Tortoise Lake felt completely different from any other glacier.
Along the edge of the slope, jagged shards of black ice reflected their surroundings like obsidian blades.
But the sight that greeted them atop the hill surpassed all expectations.
At the pitch-black center of the lake, massive ice fragments were being formed endlessly—it was unsettling, even to Mujae, who’d been too preoccupied with Hallakgoong to enjoy the view.
If not for Hallakgoong’s constant whining, he would have lost himself to the spectacle.
“Shouldn’t we be filming this? Let’s hurry and get some shots~ Come on, hyung. We’re the Promotion Team, after all~”
“It’s too late. Let’s just leave the cameras set up and go.”
Mujae snapped to his senses at those words.
Hallakgoong would never act like this.
Whoever that guy was, they couldn’t just let him run wild! With that one thought, Mujae busied himself installing the cameras, when Hallakgoong muttered something ominous.
“Aish… I have to go.”
Where could he mean? Suppressing the growing fear inside, Mujae searched for the amethyst cave. Luckily, as Seolpyo had said, a place near the lake shimmered with a purple aura. Mujae called out loud enough for all to hear.
“Let’s sleep there tonight.”
“What? Where’s that?”
Perhaps deciding it was best to follow Mujae, Zack grabbed Hallakgoong’s camera and hurried to finish setting up.
Whether Hallakgoong protested or not, Mujae and Zack dashed full speed for the cave.
The moment they entered, they saw that it was filled with amethyst crystals, utterly unlike the black ice outside.
‘Amethyst.’
Realizing the source of the purple energy, Mujae felt relieved.
Since ancient times, amethyst was said to calm the mind and protect against evil spirits.
‘That’s why so many experimental tools were made from amethyst….’
Memories of standing on the Judgment Platform flashed through Mujae’s mind, and he shook his head.
Now wasn’t the time for nostalgia. Inside the Amethyst Cave, it was definitely less cold than outside.
Zack, who hadn’t been able to stand tall despite being bundled up in heat packs, relaxed his shoulders as soon as he entered.
Meanwhile, the usually carefree Hallakgoong peered around the cave with a suspicious expression.
“Here? You want to sleep here?”
He hovered near the entrance, reluctant to go any farther inside.
Crouched and darting nervous glances, he looked completely unfamiliar.
After a moment’s thought, Mujae came over and laid out his sleeping bag next to Hallakgoong.
At this, Hallakgoong burst out hysterically.
“What do you think you’re doing?!”
“What else? Sleeping next to my friend, of course.”
As casually as possible, as if nothing were amiss.
Zack, too, set his sleeping bag right up beside Hallakgoong’s.
Hallakgoong ground his teeth in frustration.
“Get lost!”
“Hurry up and lay out your sleeping bag. We need to sleep so we can film again tomorrow.”
“Tch….”
Quick-witted as ever, Zack brought over Hallakgoong’s sleeping bag.
With Zack and Mujae working together, it took barely two beats to get Hallakgoong’s bedding ready.
“Tada~”
Mujae and Zack put on their brightest smiles.
Surrounded on both sides, Hallakgoong glared at his friends, then zipped himself all the way up inside his sleeping bag.
Once Hallakgoong’s gaze was off him, Zack gestured to Mujae.
‘Who is this guy?’
Ugh. Mujae was at a loss for words at such a direct question. And the truth was, he didn’t know either.
‘I don’t know. But Seolpyo said not to let him leave the cave before sunrise tomorrow.’
Nodding, Zack—who was only weak to the cold but otherwise utterly reliable—seemed to understand everything in an instant.
He slipped comfortably into his sleeping bag. Three seconds later—
“Snore….”
“……”
The moment Zack’s head hit the ground, he began to snore thunderously.
At that moment, all of Mujae’s tangled emotions distilled into one.
‘Betrayed!?’
He’d assumed they’d keep watch together or at least take shifts! How could Zack just fall asleep? But unable to complain out loud, Mujae just sighed inwardly.
Still, for the first time in a while, things had quieted down.
Mujae took out the now-crumpled map of Northern Ice Hell from his sleeve.
‘The Labyrinth is almost right in front of us.’
Unlike the neatly marked areas on the rest of the Northern Ice Hell map, the Glacier Labyrinth was tangled like a mess of hair.
Seolpyo had even marked a red X there, making it look even more ominous.
By this point, Mujae was sure of one thing.
‘It’s pursuing us.’
Unlike the other areas that moved slowly and aimlessly, the Glacier Labyrinth was heading straight for them ever since Hallakgoong started acting less and less like himself. Now, it was as if the Labyrinth itself was chasing them.
‘Should we go to the Labyrinth?’
And Hallakgoong had mentioned the Labyrinth so lightly earlier.
A completely different attitude from before.
With growing unease, Mujae glanced at Hallakgoong, curled up in his sleeping bag like a cocoon.
Why?
Why was Hallakgoong hiding in the sleeping bag?
Why did he dislike this cave, yet want to go to the Glacier Labyrinth?
Why didn’t he want to come to the Northern Ice Hell at all…?
“Mujae.”
A low voice came from inside Hallakgoong’s sleeping bag. Half-dozing, Mujae almost yelped in surprise, but barely managed to stifle it. Doing his best to sound normal, he answered as if he’d been awake all along.
“Yeah?”
“I….”
Hallakgoong’s confession came out of nowhere.
“I almost died in This World.”
“……”
“I fell through the ice on a frozen pond in the middle of winter. The water was so cold, it felt like my whole body froze.”
“Oh….”
“But now, I’m feeling it again.”
Hallakgoong’s sleeping bag occasionally trembled beside him. Was it from shivering in the cold, or was he sobbing? Mujae couldn’t tell.
“It’s too cold.”
“It’s okay, Hallakgoong.”
“Back then, Mother saved me….”
Mujae, patting Hallakgoong’s sleeping bag, felt a definite shudder of sobs.
“But I couldn’t save Mother….”
What did that mean? Mujae couldn’t bring himself to respond.
Suddenly, his eyes landed on Sara’s colorful Lucky Pouch, securely fastened to Hallakgoong’s backpack.
Sara had told them to open it in case of an emergency, but Hallakgoong had strictly forbidden its use.
And he recalled how Hallakgoong had tried to confess something yesterday.
‘Do you know what kind of people are the sinners of Northern Ice Hell?’
The question from long ago, from Songje Great King, echoed in his mind.
-Have you never lived among others?
-Do you have too great a hole in your heart?
Mujae finally realized what Hallakgoong feared.
‘Somehow, I feel like I’d fit among them.’
He said he feared that he might fall under the sins of Northern Ice Hell. The sin of freezing another’s heart and leaving holes behind.
-Is that one perhaps originally human?
Seolpyo’s question about whether Hallakgoong was once human implied much. There were three types of Promotion Team members.
First, The Dead whose memories of their past lives were wiped clean.
Second, Half-Gods who became gods as humans.
Third, young gods from faraway places.
Of these, only one would be affected by the bitter winds of Northern Ice Hell—the Half-God, Hallakgoong, who still carried memories of This World. From inside the sleeping bag, Hallakgoong’s feverish groans continued.
“It’s too cold….”
He was freezing, just like the sinners of Northern Ice Hell! With this realization, Mujae finally noticed something he’d missed until now.
“!!”
Inside the black ice beneath their feet, he met eyes with a frozen Dead.
The eyes of those who’d become part of Northern Ice Hell clung to Mujae, relentless. Before he could react, an even more shocking sight appeared.
A pale typhoon was swirling outside the cave entrance.
It was the Glacier Labyrinth, the place Seolpyo had said would be nearly impossible to escape if entered.
Now Mujae understood why, after they arrived at Black Tortoise Lake, the Glacier Labyrinth had drawn ever closer.
The Glacier Labyrinth wasn’t a glacier at all.
It was a massive ice typhoon, swirling and dragging frozen sinners with it.
At that moment, Hallakgoong burst out of his sleeping bag.
“I have to go!”
“Hallakgoong?!”
Hallakgoong’s entire body had turned bluish, as if frostbitten.
Like a wild beast, he bolted blindly toward the Glacier Labyrinth outside the cave.
Startled, Mujae reached out to stop him, but Hallakgoong had already gotten away.
“Nooo—!”
-Thud, crash!
In that instant, a huge shadow loomed in front of Hallakgoong and tackled him to the ground with a tremendous noise.
Mujae recognized the silhouette immediately.
“Zack?”
It was Zack, who’d been sleeping beside Hallakgoong, leaping at lightning speed to block him.
But Hallakgoong, now completely lost to his trance, struggled to break free and was about to escape Zack’s grasp.
Almost without thinking, Mujae tore Sara’s Lucky Pouch from Hallakgoong’s backpack and gripped it tightly.
“I have to go! Let me go!”
“…!”
Finally, just as Hallakgoong was about to break free, Zack slammed his palm hard onto the ground.
-Bam!
And then even harder.
-Bam, bam!!
The ground beneath Zack’s hand responded, cracking open with a resounding noise.
“Uaaah!”
Before Hallakgoong could fall into the Labyrinth, the ground swallowed him up.
Mujae rushed over with Zack, finding Hallakgoong flailing in a huge pit. He was groaning pitifully.
“I have to go, I have to go….”
Just then, a signal that the long night was ending enveloped them.
Far off, the dawn began to paint the black Black Tortoise Lake red. And a familiar voice rang in Mujae’s ears.
“Well done.”
“Your Majesty….”
Songje Great King, the ruler of Northern Ice Hell, was looking down on them.
Startled, Mujae lost his grip, and Sara’s Lucky Pouch slipped from his hand and fell onto Hallakgoong.
“?!”
In an instant, Crimson Flame engulfed the frozen Hallakgoong.