The scene cut back to Cha Hyun-soo. Right as he was about to sink completely into the mirror space, Kim Young-soo's desperate shout yanked him back to reality.
Bang!
A monster with massive, spiraling ram horns kicked the iron door behind Cha Hyun-soo clean off its hinges. The creature looked straight out of hell—twisted body, cloven hooves, and a long, thick tail whipping behind it. The sheer pressure it gave off made the air feel heavy.
Cha Hyun-soo was pinned under the fallen door, unable to move.
"Brother!" the siblings screamed, trying to drag him out from under the metal.
Ivan Greevs, fully committed to the act, bent low under the doorframe and reached for Kim Young-soo with a clawed hand. The little boy burst into loud sobs. His sister Kim Su-yeong hugged him tight and backed away fast.
"Run! Get out of here!" Cha Hyun-soo screamed, blood pouring down his face.
Seeing the 'monster' about to grab the kid, Cha Hyun-soo suddenly found a burst of strength. He gritted his teeth, lunged forward, and wrapped both arms around Ivan's leg, trying to hold him back.
"Run!" Cha Hyun-soo roared, his face covered in blood, lips twisted into the same vicious smile his Desire Mirror had worn.
Kim Su-yeong hesitated for half a second, then grabbed her brother and bolted upstairs.
How touching, Ivan thought with a savage grin. He kicked Cha Hyun-soo hard, launching him into the wall.
The kid was tough as hell, so Ivan didn't hold back. After watching him slump there like a dead fish, Ivan grabbed him by the torso, yanked him out, and hurled him across the hallway like a ragdoll.
Right then, Yoon Ji-soo and Jung Jae-heon arrived after hearing the noise. Jung Jae-heon gripped his long blade, staring at the horned monster in disbelief.
"Lord… has the devil come to earth?"
"My God… grant me the courage to shake what cannot be shaken." Jung Jae-heon placed the sword in front of him, whispered the words, then his eyes lit up with pure resolve.
He leaped behind the monster in one smooth motion and brought the blade down hard on its shoulder.
The second the edge touched Ivan's skin, a shower of sparks exploded. The massive recoil nearly shattered Jung Jae-heon's grip.
"Indestructible. Horns and a man's body. Is this really a demon from hell? Then where the fuck is God?" Jung Jae-heon muttered, head lowered. Blood poured from the torn flesh between his thumb and forefinger, running down the blade and splattering on the floor.
Ivan backhanded him hard, sending him flying. If he hadn't held back, the guy would've been dead on impact.
He'd taken this demon form specifically to test Jung Jae-heon. He wanted to see if the man could turn. Shattering that blind faith of his should create something truly nasty.
"Cough! Cough!!" Jung Jae-heon spat blood but forced himself back up. He shouted at Yoon Ji-soo, "Take Cha Hyun-soo and go! I'll handle this alone!"
"Lord, give me courage to change what can be changed. Lord, make my sword like fire to free this lost soul. Lord, grant me a pure and steady mind to crush the enemy's head."
A beam of light from the window lit up half his face. The sheer stubborn willpower rolling off him was so strong even Ivan could feel it.
"Your Lord… is already dead," Ivan rasped in a low, demonic voice. "He died the moment the apocalypse started."
The only answer was another unstoppable slash of the blade.
In any other world Ivan might've worried the guy could actually summon something. But this was Sweet Home. A world drowning in despair.
"Your Lord is dead," Ivan repeated, letting the long blade slice across his chest. He didn't feel a thing.
He leaned down, staring straight into Jung Jae-heon's eyes with pitch-black sockets. Jung Jae-heon didn't flinch. His gaze stayed rock-solid behind his glasses.
"Interesting."
Ivan turned and leaped away in a few quick bounds, vanishing from sight.
The second he was gone, Jung Jae-heon looked completely drained. He planted his sword in the floor, dropped to one knee, and hung his head. Fresh blood trickled from the corner of his mouth. The beam of light that had lit his face slowly faded away.
"You okay?" Yoon Ji-soo asked, dragging the injured Cha Hyun-soo over.
"I'm fine," Jung Jae-heon wiped the blood from his lips, stood up, and helped her carry Cha Hyun-soo into a room.
"Th… thank you," Cha Hyun-soo whispered, slowly opening his eyes.
But he quickly remembered the kids. "The children! Where are the kids?!"
Yoon Ji-soo pointed the baseball bat straight at his face. "You're infected, aren't you?"
"You're bleeding from the nose and you fucking passed out!" Yoon Ji-soo snapped, jabbing a finger at the blood dripping down his face.
Every symptom matched the emergency alert perfectly. She had no idea if Cha Hyun-soo would turn into a monster in the next ten seconds.
"You're the one who wanted to save him," Jung Jae-heon said.
"And you're sure he won't turn?"
"I'm sure blowing his head off right now isn't what God wants." Jung Jae-heon didn't want to kill him. Not while the kid still had some humanity left. Somewhere deep down, he was still hoping for a miracle.
Cha Hyun-soo lifted his head, tears running down his bloody face. "Please… save the kids. I promised I'd protect them. I'm begging you. Please."
...
Meanwhile.
Little Kim Young-soo kept tugging at his sister's sleeve. "Sis, is brother not coming? Did he die?"
Tears poured down his cheeks. His sister tried to calm him, saying they could climb the stairs by themselves. As she spoke, a wet patch spread down the boy's pants and yellow piss dripped onto the steps.
Right then, the Giant-Ear Monster shuffled around the corner, groping the wall with its huge ears twitching.
The sister remembered Cha Hyun-soo's warning. She slapped her hand over her own mouth and her brother's, holding them both dead silent.
Until a black shadow exploded out and smashed the monster flying.
"We meet again. How you holding up?" Ivan grinned like a maniac, clamping one hand around the Giant-Ear Monster's throat. His other fist rained down on its skull like a machine gun.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
The monster tried to sprout wooden vines from its arms again to knock him away.
Ivan ripped the fresh vines off like they were wet noodles.
"Run? Go on then. Let's see where the fuck you run to now!"
He grabbed the monster's head with one hand. His arm instantly morphed into a gigantic python maw lined with razor teeth and started swallowing the creature whole, starting from the skull and working downward.
The Giant-Ear Monster thrashed wildly in panic, but it was already too late.
The monster's body was sliced into countless pieces and swallowed whole, turning into pure nutrients that Ivan absorbed.
The fusion progress on his panel kept jumping until it settled at 14%.
So feeding the desire really did speed things up.
Still, the side effect was annoying as hell. That fucking mirror voice was back in his head, whispering nonstop, urging him to eat more, to keep devouring, to get stronger.
"Perfect. I wasn't sure how to train my mind before. Having you around puts me at ease," Ivan thought with a cold smirk.
Fighting his own Desire Mirror might actually be more valuable than the talent itself. This kind of opportunity was rare. He planned to savor it and push his limits as far as they'd go.
Struggling against god's plan was fun, but struggling against himself? That was exactly what he wanted.
Watching one monster devour another was pure nightmare fuel for the two kids.
"You go first. Sister will catch up soon," Kim Su-yeong said, trying to buy time for her little brother by distracting the monster.
"I won't!" Kim Young-soo cried, tears streaming down his face.
At that moment, Ahn Sun-young appeared behind the siblings, pushing her baby stroller.
"Stay the hell away from those kids," she warned, stepping protectively in front of them without hesitation.
Ivan's eyes lit up. If he remembered correctly, she was the only other person in the entire apartment besides Cha Hyun-soo who could keep her sanity after infection. People like her had a real shot at becoming special infected if they lasted fifteen days without fully turning.
In the original story, she eventually gave in to her desire to gain the power to protect these kids, fought the Muscle Monster, then hid in a bathroom and turned into a giant cocoon. That was the final fate of every monster—when desire ran out, they cocooned and birthed a new, desireless human.
"Someone who can resist desire… You're pretty impressive," Ivan said, cracking a wide, terrifying grin that stretched across his monstrous face.
Ahn Sun-young's desire was salvation. A completely non-aggressive one.
Ivan was very curious what kind of power that kind of desire could create.
Without another word, he spun around, smashed through the wall, sprouted a pair of massive fleshy wings from his back, and dove straight out of the apartment building.
...
Soon after, Cha Hyun-soo and the others reached the stairwell and found the siblings with Ahn Sun-young.
"You guys okay?" Cha Hyun-soo asked.
"Two monsters were fighting just now. One ate the other. Then this auntie showed up and stood in front of us," Kim Su-yeong explained clearly.
"You're saying the horned monster actually talked to you normally?" Yoon Ji-soo asked, stunned.
"That demon… he's different," Jung Jae-heon muttered quietly.
"Does that mean you can stay sane even after turning into a monster?" Cha Hyun-soo blurted out, eyes full of desperate hope.
___
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Read 12 Advance Chapters—P@t- Captain69