The wet, squelching sound of Mina's footsteps was like trudging through a vast swamp—a grotesque mixture of flesh, blood, and things that looked disturbingly like internal organs. In a world impossibly vast and utterly grotesque, built entirely from slick, red, living meat that reeked with a suffocating stench of blood, even the strongest will could easily be crushed. Mina had no idea where she was.
Ama had told her that the place she was being sent to was not hell—but it was not much different from hell either. Even so, it was nothing like what Mina had imagined. This was not fire or punishment. It was prolonged revulsion, an endless obscenity that gnawed at the mind until madness felt inevitable.
Mina waded through rivers of blood, passed through tunnels constructed from massive folds of flesh that rose and fell like twitching muscle memory. Enormous blood vessels—like industrial pipes from the human world—stretched endlessly, branching throughout this twisted realm. It felt as though Mina were walking inside someone's body.
And worse—
Everything still looked alive.
The place was dark. The only sources of light were softly glowing orbs embedded in the fleshy walls, and enormous eyes staring in every direction. They looked like the egg clusters of some monstrous spider. Their sheer size forced Mina to crane her neck upward in confusion.
Those… were those really ovaries…?
What kind of creature—or thing—had laid eggs here?
If even its eggs were this enormous, then just how colossal and horrifying must the mother be?
The thought made Mina tremble. The possibility that such a creature might inhabit this place filled her with dread. If she were lucky, she would never encounter it. Otherwise—forget saving Duyen and Shana—she would be dead long before that.
And thinking about it again, why hadn't Ama sent Haru instead? Why send a mere mortal like Mina here? Even if Mina herself had volunteered, she couldn't help but wonder why Ama had agreed so easily.
Did Mina regret it?
No. A thousand times no.
Mina's stubbornness—her sheer obstinacy—was greater even than her fear of the unknown. Perhaps Ama had been persuaded by that terrifying determination: Mina was willing to do anything for love, even walk straight into hell itself. The only thing she lacked was power—power equal to the immortal beings that ruled this place.
But where would she find Duyen and Shana?
And how?
That question had been haunting her since the moment she stepped into this twisted world. Surrounded by nothing but the raw red of living cells fused together unnaturally, even telling left from right was difficult—let alone finding another person.
Mina sighed, forced herself to abandon her useless fixation on the grotesque egg clusters, and continued creeping along the river of blood.
Before sending her here, Ama had given her a few instructions.
Now that Mina thought about it, she had no idea how to apply them.
There were two rules.
First: do not eat anything in this place.
Eat?
Mina looked at the pulpy masses surrounding her. Eat what? And how? The very idea was absurd. Even thinking about food was impossible. Mina had never liked meat to begin with—being surrounded by nothing but writhing raw flesh was already a nightmare beyond endurance.
That rule could be ignored.
The second rule: find the throne—the place known as the center of this realm.
That… would be difficult.
Where exactly was this throne supposed to be?
Mina couldn't imagine anyone insane enough to place a throne in a place like this—a realm that felt less like a world and more like a piece of deranged art. If Duyen truly was trapped here, as Ama had said, then she must be terrified.
The thought made Mina's chest ache, the pain sharpening her resolve to keep going—to keep searching for the love she refused to abandon.
As for Shana?
Who cared where she was?
And yet, Mina couldn't bring Duyen back without Shana—and that was the part she hated most.
Mina muttered under her breath,
"Why does Ama sound exactly like that short little brat named Dali anyway…?"
Imagining Dali's baby-faced expression made Mina's anger boil—oddly enough, it dulled her revulsion toward the place. She sighed and kept moving, cautiously probing her way forward.
Should I call out to Duyen?
Just as Mina was about to shout—
"Duyen—!"
Something stopped her cold.
A massive sound echoed through the entire space—a thunderous noise like the violent beating of enormous wings. It was comparable to a giant helicopter, something the size of an aircraft, rapidly approaching.
Instantly, Mina felt something was wrong.
The fleshy walls around her began to contract violently, as if they were afraid of something. The gigantic eyes trembled, their pupils spasming as tears streamed from them in terror, before their eyelids slammed shut.
The sight was so unnatural that Mina couldn't even process what was happening. She found herself unable to breathe—unable to call Duyen's name.
Should I be afraid?
The sound drew closer.
The space fell eerily silent, save for the deafening wingbeats now hovering directly above Mina. She quickly pressed herself into a recess in the wall—soft, mucous-like flesh—and peeked out.
What she saw made her clamp a hand over her mouth to keep from screaming.
Before her hovered a colossal creature—part insect, part worm, part serpent—with four massive wings beating like those of a dragonfly. Its skin was pale and slick, like exposed intestines. Its enormous, elongated body ended in a grotesquely long, razor-sharp claw.
Bulging eyes protruded from both sides of its head. Two small, elongated arms jutted from its body—each with only two underdeveloped fingers, absurdly tiny compared to its monstrous scale, and seemingly useless.
What in the world was that thing?
It looked like a bug, a flying intestine, and a worm all at once.
The creature flew toward the glowing egg clusters and landed among them. It emitted a harsh screech—like two metal bars grinding against each other—sending shivers through Mina's skin. It sounded as though it were communicating with the eggs.
One of its tails extended and plunged violently into a section of the fleshy wall.
Instantly, the tissue convulsed, twisting in unbearable agony. The entire space trembled, as if the world itself were being tortured.
When the tail was ripped free, it left behind a swollen, bruised wound—pale and bloated, like a mosquito bite on human skin. Yet it looked far more painful than it appeared.
The creature then drove its tail into the ovarian sacs, as though feeding them—nourishing them with the endless nutrients of this place.
Just thinking about it made Mina's stomach churn.
She watched as the wall writhed in pain, as the massive eyelids leaked tears that soaked into the perpetually wet, blood-slick surface—tears that would never dry.
Mina stood frozen.
She didn't overthink it.
She simply chose another path.
The farther she went, the more tangled the pathways became—some even forming natural stair-like structures that led to different regions. It was as though this place were a city made entirely of flesh. And the more she traveled, the more immense it revealed itself to be.
In that case, a throne existing here didn't seem so strange after all.
Mina's mind involuntarily conjured an image of a throne made of meat and intestines.
Disgusting. But somehow… fitting. Yet who would sit on it?
That creature earlier certainly wasn't built to sit like a human.
Could it be that this place was made to await someone?
Or perhaps—it hadn't always been like this.
In silence, Mina climbed massive stairways embedded in towering walls of flesh that rose endlessly into the darkness.
Then—
She heard sobbing. Mina startled.
She had no idea how long she'd been wandering here, but until now, she hadn't heard a single human sound.
That noise… it sounded unmistakably human.
Could it be Duyen?
Driven by hope, Mina frantically searched for the source.
"Duyen! Duyen!"
She shouted—but no one answered. Even the giant eyes along the walls glanced at one another in confusion, as if they too had no idea what this girl was searching for.
Mina screamed until her throat burned raw, yet still found no trace of Duyen.
Powerless—
She could only follow the suspicious sound of crying.
It led her to a hollow in the wall. The mouth of the cavity was smeared with some strange, sticky substance—but it wasn't blood.
When Mina leaned closer and peered inside, she saw someone—or something—with long black hair, matted and clumped together with blood and countless other unidentifiable fluids. It looked vaguely human, but far too small, and it was emitting strange noises—like the cries of a child.
Was that crying really coming from here?
The moment Mina realized it wasn't Duyen, the flicker of desperate hope in her eyes was instantly extinguished, replaced by a cold, emotionless stare. She shot the creature a sharp, contemptuous glare—human or not, she seemed to despise it all the same.
With a cold snort, she turned away and walked off.
Only then did the creature react. Hearing movement, it slowly turned its head toward the opening. In truth, it was a small, pretty little girl. But when it realized Mina was already leaving, its face trembled and it let out a soft, fragile cry.
"Fa… ther…?"
It immediately leapt out of the hollow, startling Mina. She spun around in shock.
"A child?" Mina blurted out.
Standing there was a little girl in a white dress, now stained dark red and black with dried blood. The girl's wide-open stare made Mina deeply uncomfortable.
Ugh, Mina thought. What kind of sick bastard would leave a kid in a place like this?
Mina hated children.
Maybe I can just ignore her. This girl is definitely not human…
Mina subtly stepped back, hoping the thing wouldn't attack. The girl merely tilted her head, studying Mina.
Then—she noticed something.
A twisted smile slowly spread across the child's seemingly innocent face. Her deep crimson pupils narrowed into thin slits, like those of a hunting beast.
She lunged at Mina instantly.
Too fast—before Mina could even react—
Grotesque chewing sounds echoed somewhere in the darkness. As if something was forcing its way inside her. Devouring her from within.
In the pitch black, Mina couldn't even tell what was happening to her anymore. Gradually, through the haze, she could hear the creature's voice—the thing that was eating her—muttering with a deranged chuckle.
"What is this…? This is the first time I've ever eaten something this delicious… It's far better than that little girl those old geezers fed me back then…"
The thing—in the shape of a child—was gnawing into Mina's abdomen. But it didn't realize Mina's eyes were still watching it, even as it devoured her body…
A very strange gaze.
"It's strange that you were able to reach this place… But I'll take it as my good fortune. Today, I get to claim this body. I'll return to the world of the living and—"
Thud!
The demon suddenly froze mid-motion. It stopped chewing and violently vomited everything out.
"Ghk—!"
It writhed in agony, as if suffering unbearable pain. As though it couldn't digest the flesh it had just consumed. Its insides felt like they were about to explode.
Impossible…
This woman…Her blood…?
It's not human!
The creature screamed—a horrifying mixture of countless children's voices, overlapping, layered with different languages… the voices of all the lives it had devoured before.
No…
No…
This blood—this blood can never be eaten! It felt as though something was assimilating with it—inside its own body.
No…
Is she assimilating with me?
Could it be…Is she one of them…?
Those blood-soaked, slaughtered gods…?
Then what exactly is this human—to her?!
An image surfaced in the demon's mind: a woman with blazing orange-red eyes. Like that woman, the one who made it so afraid that it regretted ever existing, that time.
At that very moment, Mina's silhouette rose behind the demon—when it had been certain she would never wake again.
The demon turned its head. For the first time in its existence, fear twisted across its face.
"The great Sun-Goddess..."
Mina leave that place. Her entire body was smeared with blood, yet strangely, there wasn't a single wound on her skin. She couldn't even remember what had just happened.
Mina looked up at the staircase made of living flesh and murmured softly,
"Duyen… I'm here. You just need to wait a little longer."
Strangely, even the road ahead now seemed clearer, as if it had been waiting for her arrival for a very long time.
---
In the fog-shrouded village, a petite girl wearing a fur-lined coat and a black beanie leaned against a pile of cargo. She held the strange ring Mina had given her, examining it carefully while chatting with someone beside her.
"So you really don't remember what you did back then, Ama?"
Ama sat next to Mina, who lay sleeping—or more accurately, in a state of suspended death. In truth, her soul was somewhere else entirely.