EPISODE 41
We fly over... the Capital in fire and fury... the river...
... and on the other bank... the silhouettes of Kang Chul and Ren-Bo.
Purple wings, Ren-Bo weeps, hand on Kang Chul's shoulder.
Curled up on his knees, he suffers the worst torment of his life...
| - | (sad) Yes, make me love as if it were the last time. |
| - | Agh... She planned... to abandon me... ?! |
| - | (soft) Ajusshi... We can't stay here. |
|
| - | (grimaces as he cries) ghh... AaarARaah... Agh... Aarraahh.... Aahhhh...... |
|
| - | (scans surroundings fearfully, blue wings) The Narrator will end up finding us. |
|
| - | ... !!!! (stares, thoughtful with dread) |
|
| - | Shall I take us home? |
He stands up, his eyes hollow with pain and morbid worry.
|
| - | (looks at the capital) There's only one way... ... I've got to see her in the flesh! |
|
| - | Haaaaf ... I don't know where it is. It's just been drawn. |
|
| - | We go home, then you teleport over there, into the sky. (points to the capital) Once you've found the royal skyscraper, you summon me. |
|
| - | (looks at the capital, fearful) ... Yes, it's possible. But-- |
|
| - | (stares at her with tortured eyes) Ren-Bo... I know you can do it. At the slightest risk, you teleport at the speed of thought. |
|
| (dismayed by his pain, empathy) |
|
| - | Anything's possible... some unforeseen reason... why she's acting this way... ... I need to know... to fight the Narrator... to end the manhwa. |
|
| - | Okay... I understand... This will help settle everything. |
| ~ | (PRELAP) Noona!!! |
Stress!!! Soo-Bong and Yeon-Joo frantically drawing on the tablets.
|
| - | With Mi-Ra helping the Narrator, we'll never keep up. |
| - | (mortified, crying) I'll die drawing, if I have to!!!! |
|
| - | (catastrophized) She's better than both of us together! |
|
| - | STOP TALKING, WORK !!!!! |
FSHA! Light flash. Ren-Bo and Kang Chul appear.
| - | ??! |
SHAF! Ren-Bo disappears. Light flash.
|
| - | (?!) Why did she leave? |
|
| (devastated, tears) |
|
| - | (scornful) Cha Yu-Sun threw you away like a dirty rag, didn't she? |
|
| - | (sobbing) Agh... |
|
| - | You're pathetic. A weakling unable to control his emotions. |
|
| (ignores him, walks to a shelf) |
FLAP-FLAP-FLAP... Ren-Bo flies like a butterfly over the buildings.
Smoke, explosions, howling in the streets, the conflict spreads!
She locates the royal skyscraper! Nearby, a block away.
Whop-Whop-Whop... Ren-Bo hears a roar in the sky and sees...
... police helicopters! Flying right over the buildings of the Capital.
FLIP-FLAP !! She dives between the buildings, undetectable by the helicopters.
Kang Chul reaches the shelf, followed by Wang Shin.
|
| - | What foolish risks are you imposing on Ren-Bo for your vain whim?! |
|
| - | (sad, rummaging through a bag on the shelf) None... I'll take care of the Queen of Darkness. |
|
| - | Alone? Ridiculous! She has the power to strike you down 100 times over! |
|
| - | (pulls colorful sci-fi pistol from bag) Mind your couple. |
|
| - | Yah!! (Pof!, hits him on the shoulder) If Ren-Bo gets hurt, I'll beat you to death! |
|
| - | .... (stubborn, doesn't care about him) |
FLAP-FLIP-FLAP... Ren-Bo twirls and slaloms between buildings.
Faster than a helicopter, she turns the corner of a building and...
... flies close to the royal skyscraper when--
HWAAang... She hits an invisible elastic obstacle! KO under the shock!!!
She bounces back and forth several times in decreasing amplitudes...
... until she's motionless in the air... FAINTED.
Ren-Bo dissolves from "real" to "image" on Yeon-Joo's tablet.
An incomprehensible image: Ren-Bo fainted, motionless in the sky, between two buildings.
|
| - | (appalled) OMO !!! What's that?!! |
|
| - | ... !!! (intuition "mortal danger") |
|
| - | No... No... (stares at image in anguish) |
The image disappears... A new image materializes...
|
| - | ... !!!!!!!! (eyes magnifying in horror) |
Ren-Bo is actually stuck to translucent, slimy strings.
A butterfly trapped in a huge spider's web, woven between buildings!!
Emerging from the corner of the building and climbing towards the web...
... a GIGANTIC BLACK SPIDER! A body five times the size of Ren-Bo!
Hairy legs five meters long. A dozen bulging eyes. Sharp mandibles.
A PREDATOR FROM THE WORST NIGHTMARES !!!
Spider and Ren-Bo dissolve from "real" to "image" on the tablet.
|
| - | AAAHHHH !!! |
Soo-Bong tries to gum up the spider, but it can't be erased!!!
|
| - | (crazy) NOOO !!! NOOO !!! |
|
| - | ... !!!!!! (terrible guilt) |
|
| - | (tormented) Ren-Bo, wake up... wake up... |
Advancing paw by paw on the web, the giant spider causes slight vibrations...
... perceived by Ren-Bo, painfully regaining consciousness with eyes closed.
She moves slightly, causing vibrations to reach the spider's paws.
Ren-Bo reflects in the spider's bulging eyes, sensing its prey waking up.
Suddenly, the giant spider gallops towards Ren-Bo! At turbo-train speed!!!
Ren-Bo opens her eyes and sees the spider sprinting--
|
| - | HIIIIIIIIIII... !!!!! (prolonged scream...) |
TERROR !!! Bright red and blue wings!
In the spider's eyes, Ren-Bo grows larger and larger, until contact, AND--
SHAF! She disappears. Light flash.
FSHA! Light flash. Ren-Bo appears.
|
| - | ... IIIiiiIIIiiiiii. (finishes screaming when...) |
... She realizes she's sitting in the middle of the room.
Entangled in a mass of gooey web, she sees the others...
SLOW MOTION: (without sound)
... without understanding their attitude. Ren-Bo, ???
Soo-Bong, Wang Shin, Kang Chul, Yeon-Joo:
They're near the entrance, around the table with the tablets.
They're gesticulating, screaming in terror, staring at something behind her.
"AAAAAAAAAAHHHH !!!!" Screams and hysterical panic!!!
The gigantic spider has been teleported with Ren-Bo by accident!!!
The monster is startled, and in a horrible nervous reflex--
Creeps to the back of the room, occupying all the sofa space.
Its legs are so long that even when folded, they reach the center of the room.
Ren-Bo reflects in the spider's bulging eyes, now alert.
|
| - | (looks back) ... !!!!!!!!!! (sees the spider) |
The monster leaps at Ren-Bo with terrifying speed!!!
shrrrrnnn... Kang Chul fires the sci-fi gun!
A yellow laser beam hits the spider, surrounds it in a yellow halo and--
SHRINKS!!! it to the size of an ordinary 5-centimeter spider.
|
| - | Hurry!!! Crush it!!! |
Only Soo-Bong quickly understands. He looks down...
... sees the spider running towards the kitchen. He chases it and--
Paf!! Stomps his foot to crush it, but misses!!!
|
| - | It's been shrunk! |
Wang Shin nearby, sees the frightened spider, and--
Paf!! He stomps his foot to crush it, but misses!!!
The spider runs and hides behind the refrigerator.
|
| - | Aish!!! It's hiding in the back! |
|
| - | Out of the way!!! |
Kang Chul switches his pistol's selector to a roasted sausage icon and--
drrrzzzzz!!! Shoots a red laser beam at the refrigerator.
It turns red and DZGRT!!! disintegrates!!
Soo-Bong sees the spider near the refrigerator wall.
|
| - | Filth! |
He kicks his heel to crush it, but at the last moment--
SWELL!!! The spider grows to its original size! Gigantic!!!
Soo-Bong is thrown into the air, as if he'd stepped on a trampoline...
... and Crashes! into a shelf several metres away.
The spider occupies the entire kitchen. Its head just inches from Wang Shin!
|
| - | RAAAAHHHHHH !!!!! (terror!!) |
The mandibles close on his head, he contracts his eyelids, but...
frrrzzzzz-- Sound of laser beam.
... death does not come. He opens his eyes and sees that the mandibles are frozen.
The spider is colored with a blue glow. Paralyzed, in stasis!
Kang Chul switches his sci-fi pistol's selector and--
shrrrrnnn... shoots a yellow laser beam at the spider!
A yellow halo surrounds it, in addition to the blue halo, producing a green halo, and--
SHRINKS!!! it to the size of an ordinary paralyzed spider.
Immediately, Paf! Paf! Paf!!! Wang Shin crushes it frantically with his foot.
|
| - | (hysterical) Rot!!! (Paf!) Rot!!! (Paf!) Rot!!! (Paf!) |
Everyone is panting, heart pounding, recovering from this ultimate moment of horror.
SWELL!!! The spider's corpse grows to its giant size!!!
|
| - | AAAAAAAH !!! |
Wang Shin is hurled upwards, half-sunken into the spider's body.
An infamous crushed organic mush, dripping with brown fluids, occupying the entire kitchen.
The titanic legs have post-mortem nerve reflexes. They're so long that--
Vrash!! A paw knocks a tablet and a screen off the table.
Sbom!! Another paw strikes Soo-Bong, who is pushed against a shelf.
Then, little by little... the jolts cease, all traces of life disappear...
|
| - | (vomits) Blewaargl... |
Yoon-Hee emerges from the guest room, awakened by the noise.
| - | Oooh!!! (stunned) |
She sees that they're all in shock, speechless, staring at the monster's corpse.
|
| - | It's not the sort of thing you want to see in your kitchen, on your way to breakfast. |
Her absurd remark lifts the mood.
(One minute later.)
Wang Shin groans, extricates himself from the monster's corpse.
Soo-Bong groans, stands up exhausted, near the shelf.
Yeon-Joo tries to remove the spider's leg cluttering up the workstation.
But she's not strong enough!
|
| - | Yoon-Hee, help me! |
|
| - | !!! (yuck, disgusting) |
She takes courage, grabs the spider's leg, and pulls it off easily thanks to her strength.
Yeon-Joo picks up a tablet, places it on the table.
|
| - | (looks at the spider corpse) How will we clean up this horror?! |
|
| - | We'll see about that later! (turns on her tablet) |
Soo-Bong goes to Ren-Bo to take care of her, but--
|
| - | SOO-BONG !!! (beckons him to come and draw) |
|
| - | (!!) Noona, maybe Yoon-Hee could-- |
|
| - | NO ! Right now we need our best drawer. |
Disappointed, Soo-Bong joins her, and as they draw on the tablets...
Kang Chul stands statuesque, his mind wandering, overwhelmed by guilt.
For the sake of the woman he loves, he has endangered an innocent person.
Ren-Bo remains on the ground, numb. Her head shakes like a lunatic.
Wang Shin, smeared with the spider's remains, charges towards Kang Chul.
|
| - | (angry) Selfish bastard!!! |
Baf! He punches Kang Chul in the face, who takes it without flinching.
|
| - | All that for this bloody slut!!! |
Baf! Punch in the face! Kang Chul remains motionless, bleeding from the mouth.
Wang Shin is ready to strike again, but Yoon-Hee touches his arm, "stop".
He sees that Kang Chul doesn't mind being beaten, and even accepts it tragically.
Wang Shin's fist trembles, his resolve weakens, he remembers...
Just as it was about to devour Wang Shin, the spider is frozen, colored blue.
Now Wang Shin looks at Kang Chul. He's so pathetic...
The man who just saved his life is tortured more than by beatings.
So Wang Shin gives up, he can't hit him any more.
Kang Chul looks at Ren-Bo tetanized... He walks towards her and--
Loses all strength, collapses to his knees. They have the same lost eyes.
He gradually approaches, trembling... They share their affliction with a glance.
|
| - | Sorry... Sorry Ren-Bo... |
|
| - | ... (touches his cheek, trembling) |
|
| (hugs her) |
|
| - | (accepts the hug and bursts into tears) Boo hoo hoo hoo hoo hoo...... |
|
| - | (too much pain and guilt, bursts into tears) Boo hoo hoo hoo hoo hoo...... |
They cry together for a while... The others are moved as they watch...
(One minute later.)
Wang Shin looks up with a sigh.
He forgives, but cares to tell the painful truth...
|
| - | (empathetic) Kang Chul, I know it's hard to accept, but she betrayed you. This monstrous spider is a typical creation of the Queen of Darkness. |
|
| - | .... (grimace of sorrow, hard to accept) |
|
| - | Hyung... He's right... There was no yellow frame of the Narrator. |
|
| - | (sad, incredulous) It's absurd, why would she do that? Why? |
Wang Shin is annoyed that she's still naive towards Mi-Ra, but doesn't want an argument.
|
| - | Uh-hum... I'm no help here. Just do your best. I'll take care of your son after a good shower. (goes to bathroom) |
|
| - | ...... (sad, grateful for help) |
|
| - | AAAAH !!! THE NARRATOR !!! (looks frightened at her tablet) |
|
| - | ?!! (gets up immediately, runs over) |
|
| - | !!! (worried, looks at Yeon-Joo's tablet...) |
Big hornets with stingers like thorns are flying around.
Narrator's yellow frame: "It's well known that bears love honey."
|
| - | (sees tablet) ... !!!! REN-BO ! SUMMON YOUR FRIENDS !!! |
|
| - | ... ??! (too stunned to react) |
A new drawing materializes on the tablet...
In the foreground, VrRmm!, a lawnmower roars, producing smoke.
Yellow frame: "It's not just the lawn that needs mowing."
|
| - | HURRY, REN-BO !!!! |
|
| - | YOUR FRIENDS ARE IN DANGER !!!! |
|
| - | (frightened) ... !!! |
Mr. Green-Hands rakes the lawn without noticing behind him...
VrRmm!!! The lawnmower rolling to swallow him, like a mechanical monster.
(!!!) Yeon-Joo sees the tablet blinking, like a drawing quickly replaced.
FSHA! FSHA! FSHA!... Flashes of light. The garden gnomes appear.
A new drawing materializes on the tablet...
Mr. Green-Hands has been crushed, leaving only his cap on the grass.
Yellow frame: "This is what happens to gardeners who neglect their equipment."
|
| - | ... !!! (horrified) |
FSHA! Light flash. Miss Turtle appears!
FSHA! FSHA! The automaton waiter and the tickling chair too!!
FSHA! FSHA! The laughing pictures and the birds pooping candy too!!
|
| - | It's done!!! I've summoned everyone! |
| - | ?! |
| - | ?! |
Yeon-Joo, distressed, looks around the room, and among the dwarves...
... Mr. Green-Hands is here!!!
| - | ?! |
|
| - | ... (relieved) |
|
| - | ... ?!! (looks at tablet, astonished) |
The drawing of Mr. Green-Hands crushed by the lawnmower erases itself!
|
| - | What... How?! |
|
| - | The priority order! An action occurring in the parallel world has a delay before appearing in the manhwa. And an action drawn in the manhwa has a delay before occurring in the parallel world. |
|
| - | The Narrator has ordered the murder of Mr. Green-Hands... |
SHAF! Mr. Green-Hands disappears. Light flash.
|
| ~ | ... But Ren-Bo summoned him before it could happen. |
|
| - | So the manhwa canceled the action and erased the drawing. |
|
| - | (cries, trembles) Mr. Teddy Bear... Where's Mr. Teddy Bear? |
They look around the room... No Mr. Teddy Bear!
|
| - | (?!) Ren-Bo, who did you summon first? |
|
| - | (desperate) Mr. Teddy Bear... Mr. Teddy Bear, then Mr. Green-Hands and the dwarves. |
|
| - | ... ?!! |
|
| - | ... !! (goose bumps, remembers...) |
She apprehends clicking, but finally... Click!
Fur ripped off, covered in blistering red abscesses, stung all over.
His eyes are gone, DEAD!
Yellow frame: "Gluttony is a mortal sin."
|
| - | ... !!! |
|
| - | (cries) ... No... |
Ren-Bo approaches, looks at the tablet, horrified. She remembers...
|
| - | REN-BO ! SUMMON YOUR FRIENDS !!! |
|
| - | ... ??! (too stunned to react) |
The grief, the guilt and the backlash of terror are so insurmountable that...
|
| - | HIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII... (high-pitched scream) |
|
| - | !!! (earache) |
|
| - | (crazy, keeps screaming like an alarm siren) ... IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII... |
|
| - | ... !! (intuition, "not an ordinary scream") |
|
| - | ... ("ouch", plugs ears) |
|
| - | ... (worried) |
PLUFF! Light puff! Fairy Spark appears and immediately--
| - | HIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII... (high-pitched scream) |
Fairy Spark flies at high speed, orbiting Ren-Bo like an electron around an atom.
|
| : | (intuition on alert) An existential trauma!!! Purposely provoked by the Narrator? |
|
| - | ... IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII... |
|
| : | (looks at tablet) Wherever he is... ... can he hear Ren-Bo from there? |
Her scream drowns in a cacophony of dark, creeping noises, endless echoes.
The view recedes, we see Ren-Bo further and further away, in a chimerical unreality...
... The Narrator's dimension, different from what Kang Chul imagined. (Episode 40)
|
| ~ | Out there, where time and space don't exist. No dimensions, no substance, no phenomena. |
Brutal asynchronous lines, dysphonic folds, non-Euclidean dimensional shocks.
Ren-Bo becomes tiny, a dot. Then she's indistinguishable. She was in...
... An infinite gray RHOMBUS, with multiple diamond faces, echoed in reflections of yellow fractals.
|
| ~ | There, where only an impossible and absurd abstraction exists. Beyond imagination, where the alpha and omega are the spirit that dwells. |
The rhombus vibrates, deforms and reshapes itself continuously, without logic or realism.
It often changes appearance, retaining its general gray shape and a few yellow glints.
It floats in a dark ocean of letters from all civilizations, existing or never to exist.
|
| ~ | There, where the Narrator is unable to live, to feel, to die. He can only read and write. |
In this chaos of absurd shapes, the rhombus is not just an eye...
... It is everything that exists here, an unimaginable madness: THE MIND OF THE NARRATOR !
|
| - | ... IIIIIIIII-- (stops screaming) |
|
| - | ... IIIIIIIII-- (stops screaming) |
Fairy Spark lands on Ren-Bo's head.
|
| - | ... !! |
Ren-Bo and Fairy Spark stand still as statues, pale, empty-eyed and...
... little by little, their wings lose their color!
|
| - | ..... !! |
... gradually, the gray colors of the rhombus become vivid.
They've lost their minds and all means of communication. A CATATONY !
|
| - | ...... !! ("shit, more problems!") |
Kang Chul looks at the tablet, with the unpleasant sensation that the Narrator is watching him.
The view recedes rapidly, Kang Chul becomes too small to see. He was...
... at the center of the fractal rhombus, now of all colors, vivid and saturated.
Perhaps, for a short time, the Narrator is able to feel?
Woooshhh... An immense ray of multicolored light bursts from the center of the rhombus and...
|
| - | (startled) AAAH !!! |
The light floods the room with rainbows. Then it dims and...
The Narrator appears on the tablet, against a hideous multicolored background of random specks.
| - | (banter) How are you, Kang Chul? You're smart enough to understand the situation, aren't you? |
The horrible mouth has a smiling rictus, the eyes crinkle briefly with joy.
|
| : | (?!) ... He's capable of emotion now?! |
|
| - | Also... I hear you're suffering from a break-up. I saw you crying heartbreakingly earlier, on the riverbank. |
|
| - | ... !!!! |
|
| - | I wanted to thank you for improving the dramatic quality of my manhwa. (laughter from beyond the grave) AH AH AH AH AH !!! |
|
| - | ASSHOLE !!! |
Kang Chul angrily clicks "blank image" on the tablet, and makes the Narrator disappear.
|
| - | (?!!) ... What if he prevents us from drawing by constantly appearing? |
|
| - | No, if he could block us like that, he would have done it long ago. Communicating is certainly complicated for him. |
|
| - | (continues drawing but glances briefly at Ren-Bo) Hyung, what's going on? (distressed) Why is she like that? |
Ren-Bo and Fairy Spark are gray and catatonic.
|
| - | It's because-- |
ZRZZT! Ren-Bo and Fairy Spark become instantly transparent!!!
Only their wings remained normal.
|
| - | ... !!!!! |
|
| - | (?, looks briefly at Ren-Bo) ... !!! |
|
| (thinking at high speed) |
|
| - | (worried) What's wrong with her?!!! |
|
| - | YOON-HEE !!! Replace Soo-Bong, QUICK !!! |
|
| - | ??! |
|
| - | (??) Hyung, wha-- |
|
| - | (grabs Soo-Bong by the collar and forces him to his feet) Don't argue !!! (to Yoon-Hee) YOON-HEE !!! |
|
| - | ?!! (hurries to sit down in front of the tablet) |
Yoon-Hee picks up her stylus from the table. (the one with a pink cow-shaped tip)
|
| - | This is a bad idea! It's easier when Soo-Bong draws! |
|
| - | It's not important now! Ren-Bo suffers an existential trauma. The elimination of her friend accelerates her disappearance and that of her world. |
|
| - | !! |
|
| - | The Narrator did this to inflict her the final blow. SOO-BONG !!! You've got to help her!!! |
|
| - | Help her??! But-- |
|
| - | Do everything possible to bring her back to her senses!!! If you don't, the Narrator will win AND SHE WILL DIE !!! |
|
| - | !!!!!!!! |
(One minute later.)
The dwarfs and Miss Turtle cry, at Ren-Bo's feet...
... gray, translucent, diverted by black lines, like her whole body!
Mr. Green-Hands sternly scolds the dwarfs:
|
| - | Ren-Bo wouldn't like to see you whining and doing nothing! Let's help her friends clean up this mess. (points to the spider's corpse) |
|
| - | You'll find tools in the garden shed. |
Mr. Green-Hands leads his dwarf troop towards the exit.
Soo-Bong looks at Ren-Bo's wings, fearing they'll become transparent too.
|
| - | Angel, can you hear me? |
|
| - | ..... |
|
| (paws at Ren-Bo's calf to wake her up) |
|
| - | ..... |
|
| - | I'm sure you can hear me... ... so come back with us... you're not alone. |
Further on, Kang Chul painfully takes stock, angry with himself.
|
| - | It was stupid to think they were well hidden... |
|
| - | We... We'll draw the house somewhere quieter! |
|
| - | (whimpers) But I really liked that lake! |
|
| - | ... (about to go crazy) |
|
| - | With an even nicer lake, in the mountains! |
|
| - | Ren-Bo, don't teleport directly there. Choose an inconspicuous place and let your friends go there on their own. |
|
| - | (annoyed, sighs with vibrating lips) Pfwlflflfl... Why would I bother doing that?! |
|
| - | I'd rather they not be seen in this house in the manhwa. Do you want them to suffer the same fate as Mr. Ladybug? |
|
| - | ... !!! (cooled in a flash) |
|
| - | I thought the Narrator hadn't found them. But he was just waiting for the right moment to strike. |
|
| - | Oppa! (looks at her tablet in dismay) |
|
| (looks) |
GUM-GUM-GUM... gum strokes erase Yoon-Hee's drawing. (a metal barrier)
|
| : | (torn) No Narrator frame. A human erases this. |
... in a sumptuous, colorful living room, different from her real-world apartment.
|
| ~ | And it can only be Mi-Ra, the woman I love. Why?!! |
|
| (sighs heavily, overwhelmed) |
Whatever her intentions, it's costing her dearly morally.
|
| : | Is it to deceive the Narrator, because our plan has failed? A substitute plan she can't reveal? Or... (tortured) she's really betrayed and doesn't want to end the manhwa? |
Behind, the garden gnomes saw the spider's corpse.
They shovel the remains into a wheelbarrow, which they carry to the garden.
As Soo-Bong tries to console Ren-Bo, suddenly--
ZRRZT!!! Ren-Bo's and Fairy Spark's right wings become transparent!!!
|
| - | (horrified) Hyung!!!! |
|
| - | ?!! (looks on in fright) ... Catatonia speeds up her demise... (thinks) ... but it's made worse by something else. |
|
| - | (!!) Something else?! (looks at tablet) |
Cha Yu-Sun's announcement, on the balcony of the royal skyscraper.
| ~ | Now is the time for REVOLUTION !!! Fight for your Queen! Take up arms!!! Kill all who oppose my Royalty!!! |
The man stands up, determined and happy.
He takes off his modern jacket and throws it on the floor.
He opens a closet, and inside:
A traditional royal guard costume, a sword, a spear!
He's dressed as a Joseon guard, armed with a traditional spear.
In the street, other men like him, armed with sticks, swords, pistols, rifles, etc.
|
| - | This!!! Where do they come from?!! |
|
| - | The Narrator's rebels, or a Moon Mi-Ra drawing!! |
|
| - | No. These events are not manipulated. It's a historical consequence. The citizens of "Queen of Darkness" choose their Queen Cha Yu-Sun. |
|
| - | (worried) So... half the manhwa people will fight the other half? |
|
| - | Yes. It's a CIVIL WAR !!! |
A tide of angry, armed citizens floods the streets.
Far more numerous than just the Narrator's rebels.
The citizens of "Queen of Darkness" assault the police.
The citizens of "Butterfly Girl" oppose them, also armed.
The fighting increases in intensity, disorganized.
Projectiles, howling, gunfire, wounded, blood, dead, flames.
No clear line of defense! IT'S CHAOS !!!
Under pressure, they talk fast. Kang Chul regularly checks on Ren-Bo.
|
| - | Impossible to differentiate between the Narrator's rebels and the classic revolutionaries. There will be deaths! |
|
| - | (weeps, desperate) Hyung.... |
Kang Chul glances at Ren-Bo, in Soo-Bong's arms...
... Her left wing slowly becomes transparent!
|
| - | DRAW FASTER !!! |
|
| - | (stressed to death) I'm going as fast as I can!!! |
|
| - | Shit! Crap! This character is ruining our efforts!!! |
On the tablet: the silver shadow killer crosses the fence of the national assembly...
He plunges his immaterial fist into a guard's heart.
smRrlll... His fist becomes material. The guard is killed outright.
Then he leaps from one guard to the next, killing them in the same way.
"AAAHHH!!" The other guards panic, scattering in disorder.
|
| - | Mi-Ra erases my drawings! Why can't I erase hers?! |
|
| - | It's not a drawing! He's a real killer, created by the Queen of Darkness. |
|
| - | Draw drones! Or any remote-controlled device!!! |
|
| (draws a military drone, armed with a machine gun) |
A commando of shadow killers jumps over the surrounding wall.
BUDDA-BUDDA-BUDDA !!! Yoon-Hee's drone strafes them from the sky.
A few are killed and Fffff... vanish in shadowy smoke.
The surviving killers rush into the building.
A new commando jumps into the courtyard. Modern shadow killers!
|
| - | Too slow!!! We need to get everyone out of the fight at once! |
Yeon-Joo starts drawing a gigantic antenna in the Capital.
|
| (GUM-GUM-GUM! deletes Yoon-Hee's drone on her tablet) |
|
| - | (cracks nervously) Shit! Shit! |
She starts to draw a new drone but--
|
| - | It's too late! You have to stop the killers in the assembly now!!! |
|
| - | !!! (cancels her drone drawing) |
POW! POW! POW! Frightened guards fire at them.
Some are killed, and Fffff... vanish in shadow smoke.
The others run, jump and bounce acrobatically off the walls.
Tzak! shoot arrows and Slash! guards with swords as they come into contact.
Pow! Pow! Pow! The government politicians hear the bangs outside.
They tremble and huddle in a corner, like a flock of terrorized sheep.
POW! POW! POW! They shoot and kill all the guards. Way cleared!
As the army of killers runs towards the amphitheatre door--
KZZT! A wall materializes and blocks the corridor!
|
| - | This will emit incapacitating waves all over the city! (draws waves around the antenna) |
He then calmly enters the assembly building through the wall.
As the revolutionaries rush into the courtyard, further away, among the skyscrapers...
KRRR! The gigantic antenna sizzles with colored interference and--
FZZT!! Disappears from the city!!!
|
| - | No!!! NO !!!!! Why??! |
|
| - | THE MANHWA !!! It's too global and incoherent for narrative logic. |
|
| (finishes a drawing and clicks on "Copy") |
|
| - | The manhwa can't accept such an easy resolution to the story! |
Yoon-Hee switches to the "Butterfly Queen in the Dark" project, ready to paste her drawing, but--
|
| - | (eyes widening with concern) OPPA !! |
|
| - | ??! |
On Yoon-Hee's tablet, a frame of the Narrator materializes, white in color...
The surrounding paintings, plants and curtains become crude simplifications.
The white frame reads: "The old wall is fragile".
Crrrrack... Cracks crack the wall. The shadow killers rush in and--
BRASH!! They smash through the wall, rushing towards the amphitheater doors.
|
| - | Protect the amphitheater!!! If the government falls, it's the end of the "Butterfly Girl" universe, and Ren-Bo will be annihilated. |
Like an inexorable tide, transparency submerges half of Ren-Bo's left wing.
Anguish gnaws at Soo-Bong. He holds her hand and whispers tenderly in her ear, to no avail!
"AAAHHHH!!!" The ministers and senators scream in terror.
Shadow killers run towards them brandishing their swords!
|
| - | Draw the same as me, Unnie!! |
|
| (looks quickly) |
|
| (click "Paste" a drawing of a machine-gun turret) |
BUDDA-BUDDA-BUDDA!!! massacres the shadow killers.
Ministers and senators, ?!! ... Unexpected hope!
Ffff... Ffff... Dead killers vanish into shadow dust.
KRAK-vrrrzzz!!! The automatic machine gun jams, emits smoke and...
... becomes a crude sketch, as does the ceiling.
A troop of modern shadow killers enters, brandishing their guns.
"AahAaHAAHH!!!" The terrorized politicians scream.
|
| - | !!!! |
|
| (draws a glass pane in one stroke, using a broad brush) |
KZZT! Armored glass materializes in front, ktak-ktak-ktak, countering the bullet impacts.
"HAAHHAahAa!!!" The politicians plunge to the ground, taking cover behind the benches.
|
| (shakes stylus in eraser mode on tablet) |
|
| - | !!!! |
|
| (click "Paste" a drawing of a machine gun) |
BODOM-BODOM-BODOM!!! massacres the modern shadow killers, Ffff... vanishing.
The politicians tremble in fear, then freeze in time when...
A white frame of the Narrator materializes: "No more ammo".
Vvvzzz!!! The machine gun stops firing, but no killer has survived.
The politicians tremble with relief, then with fear again when...
"woOwoOoo!!!" They hear the clamor of a crowd in the corridor, coming toward the amphitheater.
|
| - | !!! |
|
| - | HOLD ON !!!!! |
|
| (draws a cistern with a watering can spear) |
They are aware that this is the last fight, and must give it their all!
Soo-Bong tries to stay calm, but cries with uncertainty, while...
... Ren-Bo is completely translucent, except for the last quarter of her left wing!
KZZT! The cistern with the watering can spear materializes and--
SPURT-SPURT-SPURT!!! Spray the revolutionaries with jets of glue.
They are immobilized in a thick glue.
|
| (GUM-GUM-GUM! clears the cistern) |
|
| - | Cleared!! Again!! |
|
| - | We need something, immediately! |
Yeon-Joo couldn't see that Yoon-Hee used a non-lethal weapon.
In a hurry, she draws a magazine of ammunition on the machine-gun turret.
|
| (snarling, feeling like fighting Mi-Ra) |
SLOW-MOTION:
BODOM-BODOM-BODOM!!! Fires dozens of shells per second at the rebels.
Flesh pierced, blood eruptions, bodies shaken by the impacts.
Dozens of revolutionaries die riddled with shells!
|
| - | .... !!! (horrified, looks at the dead on the tablet) |
Yeon-Joo realizes that her rash decision...
... is killing dozens of real humans, living in the parallel dimension.
Despite the carnage, the revolutionaries keep coming.
An endless stream of cannon fodder! A BUTCHERY !!!
A white frame of the Narrator materializes: "Overheat. BROOOM!!!"
BROOOM!!!!! The cannon explodes!!! But it's too late...
... Dead silence... The revolutionaries have been slaughtered to the last man.
|
| - | (shaken) You did it... |
|
| (gasps, nervously recovers) |
|
| - | (breakdown) Boo hoo hoo... |
Yeon-Joo is overwhelmed by guilt, in addition to exhaustion and emotional collapse.
|
| - | ... !! (moved) |
A tiny feeling is reborn in Kang Chul, a distant vestige of what Yeon-Joo was to him.
At least out of compassion, he puts his hand on her shoulder to comfort her.
|
| - | Boo hoo hoo... |
Yeon-Joo rests her cheek on Kang Chul's hand, afraid he'll take it away, and cries on it.
Even though it's the little he can give her, she clings to it desperately.
|
| - | Is it really over? You made it?! (too worried to be reassured) |
|
| (sees Ren-Bo and... ) |
Transparency continues to stretch across her last solid wingtip!
|
| - | ... ?! (worried, "it's not over yet!") |
He looks at the final image of the massacre on the tablet...
The politicians risk an eye and stare in horror at the scene.
A white frame of the Narrator materializes...
|
| - | ... !! (worried) |
The frame text appears: "Me too, I can create machine guns".
|
| - | !!!! |
BUDDA-BUDDA-BUDDA!!! spits fire!!!
|
| - | !!!! (catastrophized) |
GUM-GUM-GUM... Yoon-Hee wipes out the machine gun, sensing it's too late.
Kang Chul checks Ren-Bo's condition: just one last piece of wing still solid!
He expects her annihilation, in the arms of Soo-Bong, devastated with anguish.
Yeon-Joo clasps her hands, chanting... She prays, hoping for something.
... the bullets are pushed back... their trajectories artificially curved.
The politicians are miraculously saved!! Not understanding how.
GUM-GUM-GUM... The machine-gun turret is obliterated. The firing ceases.
And hidden between the benches... A magnetic generator, an inverted electromagnet.
|
| - | ... ?! (panting) |
|
| - | (exhausted, smiles nervously) I drew it earlier and hid it... ... I was inspired by the electromagnet Soo-Bong used at Jin In-Jin's office. |
A new drawing starts to materialize on the tablet...
|
| - | (!!!) ... It's not over yet. |
He walks towards the opposite wall, with frightening calm.
Cross-section of the building: the killer is two rooms away from the amphitheater.
|
| - | There's no way to stop him!!! |
Kang Chul looks at Ren-Bo... The last solid wingtip turns translucent!!
|
| - | (!!!) Thirty seconds maximum. |
|
| - | .... !!! |
Yoon-Hee, tetanized with anxiety, is already drawing.
|
| - | (trembling voice) I'll stop him. |
She finishes drawing a translucent android.
|
| - | (guess) A robot able to become immaterial. With the same density as the silver killer. |
She finishes the drawing, clicks "Copy", then displays the manhwa and clicks "Paste".
Immediately-- GUM-GUM-GUM... The drawing is deleted!
|
| - | !!!!! |
|
| (GUM-GUM-GUM! erases android) |
Mi-Ra cries, conscious of committing a terrible crime...
... but forced by circumstances, as the only desperate choice left to her.
|
| - | (crying) Boo hoo hoo... No matter what I do, she'll have time to erase it. |
|
| - | (crying) Boo hoo hoo... no... no... |
|
| - | And if it's not her, it'll be the Narrator... Boo hoo hoo. |
|
| - | .... !!! (overwhelmed, "it was inevitable") |
|
| - | Boo hoo hoo... Hyung, what can we do?!! |
Kang Chul doesn't know... His intuition is dead... He's stunned by the inexorable fatality...
He walks slowly towards the opposite wall... The last one before the amphitheater!
|
| - | Boo hoo hoo... Hyung... Please tell me you have a solution. |
|
| - | !!!!! (eyes bulging, sees Ren-Bo in the last stage before annihilation) |
The feeling of helplessness drives him mad. "There must be a solution, there has to be"!!!
What important detail would he have left out?! He opens his mind wide and gathers...
... every scrap of information since the manhwa supernatural phenomenon began!
AND SUDDENLY, Yeon-Joo's voice echoes in his memory--
|
| - | It's easier when Soo-Bong draws. |
... he puts the puzzle together at a speed so insane that he staggers with vertigo.
| - | Soo-Bong's tablet is already impregnated with the manhwa and working. |
|
| - | Maybe... I've become a kind of Oh Sung-Moo... (terrifying, but proud) |
|
| - | You drew "Butterfly Girl" for a year. And before that "Queen of Darkness" for a year. |
He looks all over the table, searching for something without finding it.
|
| - | Soo-Bong!!! YOUR STYLUS ?!!! |
|
| - | (pulls stylus out of pocket) I have it on-- |
|
| (snatches the "OSM" stylus from him) |
|
| - | ?!! |
|
| (snatches pink stylus from Yoon-Hee and throws it away like garbage) |
|
| - | ?!! |
|
| (puts the "OSM" stylus in her hand) Draw your android with this!! You only get one shot!!! |
|
| (about to click on "New Project") |
|
| - | (stops her from clicking) NO !!! Draw directly into the manhwa! |
|
| - | (?!!) I won't be done until they-- |
|
| - | DO IT !!!!!!!!!!!! |
|
| - | (shocked, draws shakily) |
|
| - | (absurd) This is the worst decision ever!!! They'll see everything and erase the drawing before it's finished!!! |
|
| - | (at his wits' end, struggles to keep calm) No, it's the only way to be sure... |
Soo-Bong is so desperate. He looks at Kang Chul as if he were Jesus Christ, just wants to believe him.
... And enters the National Assembly Amphitheater through the wall.
Despite her great endurance, her nervous limit has been exceeded.
Yeon-Joo looks at the drawing, expecting it to be erased... but it's not!
|
| - | ... (smiles painfully, "it's better this way") |
|
| - | Neither Mi-Ra nor the Narrator try to erase the drawing? |
|
| - | (now certain of his hypothesis) They try... but can't. |
Soo-Bong watches Yoon-Hee draw. On his face: "quick! quick!!".
tlazzc... Her stylus slips, too nervous, she crosses out!!
|
| - | !!! ("no!") |
Wang Shin intervenes, returned from the bedroom unseen.
|
| - | (places hands on Yoon-Hee's shoulders) I'm with you, my wife. I know you have strength left. |
|
| (calms down, shakes less) |
|
| - | (massages her shoulders and neck) Draw, as you drew me that day... |
|
| - | ... When you said it would be essential for our destiny. |
Yoon-Hee focuses on her drawing, reassured, invigorated!
Kang Chul feels gratitude for Wang Shin.
Then he looks at Ren-Bo's condition...
She's slowly disintegrating into supernatural dust!
|
| - | At this stage, she won't take any single loss. |
One of them steps in, hands raised, to parley. (we can only see his back)
Yeon-Joo grits her teeth, Kang Chul bites his index finger, Soo-Bong is about to faint.
Ren-Bo starts to vanish!!! Yoon-Hee finishes the drawing!!!!
... But too late! The killer plunges his immaterial fist into the politician's heart, then--
SmhRlll... His fist becomes material.
General horror! At the last moment, all is lost!!!
|
| - | AAAH !!!! |
|
| - | NO !!!!! |
|
| - | ... ?!!!!! (hysterical despair) |
|
| - | ... !! (watches Ren-Bo being annihilated...) |
... but the opposite happens!
The process stops, and even... a wingtip becomes solid!
|
| - | ... ??! (speechless) |
Killer is surprised by the immaterial android.
As they clash... on the floor, we see the politician in agony:
The Prime Minister, "His Excellency"! Who dies with his eyes wide open...
|
| - | ... (cries with a smile, "thanks God") |
|
| - | He's a character from "Queen of Darkness". But he remained prime minister of the Republican government out of ambition. |
|
| - | (!!) So his death had a positive impact on the balance between the two universes. |
|
| - | ... !!!! (hand clutching heart, on the verge of a heart attack) |
|
| - | (smiles, strokes Yoon-Hee's hair) That hypocritical schemer got the end he deserved. |
|
| - | Yoon-Hee, draw a back door for the other politicians. |
|
| - | Okay. (draws) |
None of them has the upper hand, but the android prevents the killer from coming at them.
|
| ~ | Draw a speech bubble for the android, to help them escape. |
KZZT! Near the politicians, a wooden partition opens up, a secret passage.
| - | Escape this way. |
|
| ~ | Don't draw the rest of the secret passage. That way, it won't appear in the manhwa. |
Politicians rush into the secret passage.
|
| - | (guess) The passage will be an intrinsic place in the parallel universe? Neither the Narrator nor Mi-Ra will be able to see it. |
|
| - | Exactly, and neither will we. But the main thing is that the government is no longer threatened. |
Kang Chul picks up Yoon-Hee's pink stylus from the floor, then goes next to her.
|
| - | Here. (hands her the stylus) |
|
| - | ... ?? (takes the stylus, not knowing what to do with the other) |
|
| - | (takes the OSM stylus from her and hands it to Soo-Bong) Replace Yeon-Joo, she's exhausted. |
|
| - | (takes the stylus) But... Ren-Bo??! |
Ren-Bo is still gray and catatonic, but gradually becoming solid.
|
| - | If you could help her, she'd have reacted by now. Only she can heal herself... I hope so. |
|
| - | .... !! |
Wang Shin looks at them briefly, then goes to the bedroom...
Wang Shin sits on the floor among the toys, with Chul-Moo.
|
| - | (holds a small plane and waves it in the air) Vroom... Vroom... (smiles stupidly, hoping to amuse the baby) |
| - | Plane not vroom-vroom!! |
|
| - | ... ?? |
|
| - | Car, vroom-vroom! (rolls a small car on the floor) Vroom... Vroom... |
|
| (feels dumber than a one-year-old baby) |
Soo-Bong and Yoon-Hee draw calmly. Images of conflict.
|
| - | What happened? (points at Soo-Bong's stylus) ... About this stylus? |
|
| - | Metempsychosis! |
|
| - | (?) ... Metempsy-what?!? |
|
| - | The psychic energy imprinted on an object! It's a-- |
SUDDENLY--
An intense multicolored light bursts from the tablets. The NARRATOR !!!
|
| - | .... !! |
The light dims, the Narrator's face appears.
|
| - | I see you've taken advantage of the manhwa. How did you do it? |
|
| - | You don't need to know. |
|
| - | I'll find out eventually. |
|
| - | I'll get rid of you first. |
|
| - | You're forcing me to change my method and you're forgetting a detail. A detail which is a handicap for you and an opportunity for me. |
|
| - | ...... (looks at catatonic Ren-Bo, identifies threat) |
|
| - | So, Kang Chul... Who will be eliminated first? |
The tablet screen goes blank... The Narrator is gone.
|
| - | (scared) Hyung... What does this mean? |
|
| - | (pulls out his pistol) Don't panic and get down on the ground. |
|
| - | ?? |
|
| - | ?? |
|
| - | (Shik-Shak! activates the breech) GET DOWN !!! |
|
| - | ?!! |
Without understanding, Yeon-Joo, Yoon-Hee and Soo-Bong throw themselves to the ground.
Kang Chul stands and looks at them, as if waiting for something and...
FWM... Yeon-Joo, Yoon-Hee and Kang Chul are briefly blurred by shadow interference.
|
| - | ??! (sees Kang Chul blurred by shadows) |
|
| - | .... (not surprised, calmly raises his pistol, ready to fire) |
PFWOM... Yeon-Joo, Yoon-Hee and Kang Chul disappear in a shadowy turbulence!
All that's left are Ren-Bo, Fairy Spark, the manhwa characters and... Soo-Bong!
|
| - | !!!! |
Wang Shin lifts Chul-Moo into the air and walks him around the bedroom.
The baby giggles, arms spread like the wings of an airplane.
|
| - | Fshooo, fshooo, the plane! |
|
| - | Hi hi hi!! |
PFWOM... Wang Shin disappears in shadowy turbulence!
Sbom! Chul-Moo falls.
|
| - | (cries out in pain) Bwooo hooo hooo... |
Soo-Bong stands up, stylus in hand, mouth agape with incomprehension.
|
| ~ | (from the bedroom) Bwooo hooo hooo... |
Soo-Bong rushes into the bedroom.
Meanwhile, Ren-Bo remains here, still catatonic.
|
| ~ | (from the bedroom) Bwooo hooo hooo... |
The baby's cries awaken something in her.
|
| - | ..... (a spark shines in her eyes) |
Soo-Bong enters, !!!, "Wang Shin's gone too."
He takes Chul-Moo in his arms, who immediately stops crying.
He checks that nothing's broken, then puts the baby in the cradle.
|
| - | I'll be back soon. |
Soo-Bong enters, rushes to his tablet and turns it on.
He scrolls anxiously through the pages, images from the previous fight...
|
| - | (trembling voice) Hyung... Noona... Where are you?!! |
... but no pictures showing Kang Chul and the others!!
Dismayed, he looks at the empty space, Ren-Bo, the tablet... Not knowing what to do.
Miss Turtle, Mr. Green-Hands and the garden gnomes share his dismay...
