Chapter 133
Chapter 133
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 133
Chapter Title: Night That Falls in Day (9)
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It felt like being high on drugs.
My vision was dark, and my physical senses were hazy, as if shrouded in storm clouds.
But even so.
—The black sky that covered the heavens.
That, I could see with perfect clarity.
*‘So this… is Gaecheon.’*
Clinging to my hazy consciousness, I slowly lifted my head.
The sky had been a cloudless, brilliant blue.
But for some reason, it now felt dark, as if covered by thick storm clouds.
*‘Hah.’*
I let out a ragged breath and examined my body.
Like a downpour from a stormy sky.
I could feel my mana, which had been scraped dry during the fight with Cheon Do-yoon, refilling on its own.
*‘This has happened a few times before.’*
A well of mana so deep it seemed bottomless.
However, it wasn’t the Stigma’s mana I was used to.
A sinister energy, slightly different from the Stigma’s mana, sticky and foreboding, poured down endlessly from the storm clouds blanketing the sky.
*Crackle, crackle!*
Oh-jin lightly raised his hand, conjuring lightning.
Instead of its usual blue hue, a deep black lightning quietly blazed.
Even though it was his first time using Gaecheon.
It felt as familiar as returning to a long-lost home.
“Wh-what is this! Wh-what have you done, you bastard!!”
In the distance, I could see Cheon Do-yoon, clutching his eyes in a panic.
He was terrified, trembling in the unfamiliar darkness.
The image of Ha-eun crying on the hospital bed flashed through my mind.
*‘How does it feel, now that it’s happening to you?’*
I spoke to the trembling Cheon Do-yoon.
But for some reason, no sound came from my throat.
*‘…What?’*
Oh-jin frowned and looked down at his own body.
He saw parts of himself turning into storm clouds, as if melting into the darkness.
*‘Is this… also the effect of Gaecheon?’*
My consciousness felt somewhat hazy.
Oh-jin slowly turned toward Cheon Do-yoon, who was thrashing about as if having a seizure.
Before his consciousness faded any further, there was something he had to do first.
“I-I surrender!! I’ll give up the Yong’an! And the Dragon’s Heart!!”
The fight with Cheon Do-yoon ended with almost anticlimactic ease.
Was this what it felt like to fight a blindfolded three-year-old?
A chuckle escaped my lips at the sight of Cheon Do-yoon flailing desperately, enveloped in the thick storm clouds.
—An overwhelming sense of omnipotence.
The sensation of crushing a high-ranking Awakened, one said to be beyond the realm of mortals, without lifting a finger was as exhilarating as a shot of narcotics.
*‘At this moment.’*
It felt as though I could chew up and swallow even the Constellations shining in the night sky.
*‘Ah.’*
The more intoxicated I became with the power of the Black Sky, the hazier my consciousness grew.
Not just parts of my body turning to storm clouds, like now.
But if my entire body became a storm cloud, if my very soul melted into the Black Sky.
—How much more of this exhilarating omnipotence could I feel?
*‘Ah, ugh.’*
The temptation was overwhelmingly sweet.
The black storm clouds covering the sky felt as comforting as slipping under the covers after a warm shower.
I could see parts of my body turning into storm clouds, spreading like black ink.
*‘This is… dangerous.’*
Desperately clinging to my fading consciousness, Oh-jin bit his lip.
A sense of crisis, a feeling that if he stayed like this, he would never be able to return to normal, spurred him on.
*‘Get a grip.’*
A deep darkness had fallen.
In this pitch-black void where I couldn’t see an inch ahead, I searched for a light.
Within my flickering consciousness, a single streak of blue light caught my eye.
*‘The Stigma of Lyra.’*
The starlight of Polaris.
Even amidst the thick storm clouds that covered the night sky, it was radiating its brilliant light.
“Hoo, hah!”
Like surfacing from underwater, my fading consciousness cleared again.
As a breath escaped my lips, I felt my neck.
*‘It’s there.’*
Unlike a moment ago when it had turned into a storm cloud, my neck was solid.
*‘That was close.’*
A chilling shiver ran down my spine.
If I hadn’t found the Stigma of Lyra in that endless darkness.
I might have dissolved into the Black Sky and never returned.
*‘Anyway.’*
There was no time to get sentimental.
Oh-jin turned his head and looked down at the pathetically trembling Cheon Do-yoon.
*‘Shall we wrap this up?’*
Before that.
I planned to extract everything I could.
“If you do me a favor, I’ll let you out of here.”
“R-Really? You’ll let me out of here?”
Looking down at the hope glimmering in Cheon Do-yoon’s eyes, I smiled darkly.
I approached him as he lay there with his limbs gone, like a broken roly-poly toy.
“Tell me what you know. In as much detail as possible.”
“Wh-what I know…? Wh-what are you talking about?”
“Anything. About the Dragon’s Heart and the Yong’an, about the Black Star Society, about the Black Star Constellations or the Demonic Realm. If you tell me everything you know.”
The blue will-o’-the-wisp flickered ominously.
“I’ll let you live.”
“……”
Cheon Do-yoon swallowed dryly and opened his mouth.
“The, the Dragon’s Heart displays its greatest power when used by an Awakened of the Draco Constellation!”
“Next.”
“I heard those Hippocampus bastards have taken over the entire Osaka region.”
“Next.”
“The Black Star Constellations are those who were once ostracized and exiled by the other Constellations, branded as ‘Satellites’.”
“Next.”
Next, next, next.
The low voice echoed eerily.
“The one who ordered me to retrieve the Dragon’s Heart was….”
“Was?”
*Thud.*
Cheon Do-yoon’s words were suddenly cut off.
He broke out in a cold sweat, avoiding the gaze of the blue will-o’-the-wisp.
He wanted to speak of the ‘snake,’ but the restriction she had placed on him made it impossible to open his mouth, no matter how hard he tried.
“Why? Can’t you say it?”
“W-Wait! Just give me a moment!!”
“It’s okay, it’s okay. I understand.”
*Hehehe.*
An eerie laugh echoed in his ears.
“I-I’ve told you everything I can! N-Now let me out of here!”
“Alright, I will.”
Oh-jin hummed a tune as he cupped the old man’s wrinkled cheek with his hand.
“Now, slowly close your eyes and count to a thousand out loud.”
He whispered as if singing a lullaby.
“Slowly… you have to count very slowly. Got it? If you go too fast, I’ll make you start over from the beginning.”
“I-I understand.”
His head bobbed frantically.
“One, two, three.”
Following his instructions, he began to count slowly.
Slowly, slowly.
“One hundred fifty, one hundred fifty-one, one hundred fifty-two.”
Ah.
How could a mere fifteen minutes feel so agonizingly long?
Nausea rose in his throat from the maddening anxiety and unease.
But paradoxically, as his anxiety and unease grew, so did his hope.
“Five hundred forty-two, five hundred forty-three, five hundred forty-four.”
As the numbers grew.
His hope grew stronger.
His yearning intensified.
A desperate prayer for this darkness to end.
“Nine hundred ninety-eight, nine hundred ninety-nine… a thousand.”
The end of the tunnel, which had seemed eternally out of reach, was now in sight.
The scenery beyond the end of the tunnel was.
Still a black sky, where not an inch ahead could be seen.
“Ah, ahh.”
Cheon Do-yoon’s body contorted as if in a seizure.
“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!”
Tears streamed down his wrinkled cheeks.
“Why, why, why…! You said, you said you’d let me go if I counted to a thousand…!”
“Oh, that?”
*Hehehe.*
An eerie laugh echoed in his ears.
And then.
“That was a lie.”
*Splat!*
Black lightning pierced through Cheon Do-yoon’s head.
“……”
Oh-jin slowly reached his hand toward Cheon Do-yoon’s limp corpse.
*Gurgle.*
Black storm clouds enveloped his body.
“Hah.”
The mana of the Noctua Constellation flowed into him through the clouds.
On a completely different level from the owls he had absorbed until now.
A massive chunk of mana.
*T-ring!*
[Successfully absorbed the Stigma of Awakened ‘Cheon Do-yoon’.]
[The Noctua Constellation has been completed.]
[You can now receive the blessing of the Noctua Constellation, ‘Noctua’.]
[You can set the Noctua Constellation as your primary Stigma. Would you like to set it?]
“You think I’m crazy?”
The offer wasn’t even worth considering.
He swatted away the blue message window that appeared before him as if shooing a fly.
“Ugh!”
*Sizzle!*
The moment he dismissed the message, a burning pain shot through his left chest.
Lifting his blood-soaked, stuck-on shirt, he saw that the number of strokes engraved next to the Lyra Stigma had increased to seven.
*‘So I’ve reached 7-Star.’*
Well, it made sense.
He had devoured a 9-Star Awakened, one known to have transcended humanity.
It would be disappointing if nothing changed.
*‘The Succession is….’*
Even after waiting for a moment, no succession of memories occurred.
*‘Is it because I used Gaecheon?’*
He couldn’t be sure.
Either way, he had already extracted the necessary information from Cheon Do-yoon.
There was no need to read his records through Succession.
*‘Well then.’*
Oh-jin looked around at the thick black storm clouds and took a short, deep breath.
He placed a hand on his left chest.
And closed the wide-open heavens.
*Guurrrrrgle!!*
The black storm clouds were sucked back into Oh-jin’s body.
“O-Oh-jin!!!”
As soon as the storm clouds vanished, he saw Ha-eun running toward him in a panic.
“Wh-what was that just now? Y-your body was spouting storm clouds…!”
“Nunna.”
“Like a freaking Weezing letting out gas!!”
“Could you shut up for a second, woman?”
What the hell was a Weezing?
“Wh-where did Cheon Do-yoon go? A-and how did all your injuries heal?”
“I’ll explain when we get home.”
Not only had she seen him use the Black Sky, but now she’d seen him use Gaecheon as well.
No matter how much of a con artist he was, he couldn’t lie his way out of this one.
“More importantly.”
One step.
He moved toward her.
“Oh-jin…?”
He saw Ha-eun flinch and look up at him.
She looked rather cute, like a frightened puppy.
He slowly reached out and placed his hand on her cheek, which had turned as red as an apple.
The warmth he felt through his fingertips.
He caressed her cheek as if stroking a precious treasure.
“I didn’t go blind, so I guess I don’t have to take responsibility for you, huh?”
“Huh?”
Ha-eun’s eyes widened.
“N-No. Th-that’s! W-what I said earlier, that was… you know.”
Remembering her confession to Oh-jin, she started stammering and fumbling over her words.
“Ahem! W-well, yeah. S-since both your eyes are fine, there’s no need to take responsibility… I-I guess not.”
She looked away, a hint of disappointment in her expression.
Oh-jin watched her turned face and smirked.
“That was a lie.”
“H-huh? What was…?”
“About not needing to take responsibility.”
“What does that mean… Hmph!”
Pulling her waist in forcefully.
He pressed his lips against hers.