Chapter 136
Chapter 136
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 136
Chapter Title: Faded Starlight (2)
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A path made of the Milky Way, as if woven from the shining stars of the night sky.
I ascended the path of the Milky Way, which branched out into hundreds of streams like stems extending from a giant tree.
My destination was the end of the long Milky Way.
One of the three temples located at the highest point of the Sanctuary.
“Oh-jin, that….”
“……”
Ha-eun and Oh-jin's expressions hardened as they arrived at the Temple of Vega.
The temple, which should have been glowing with a soft silver light, was emitting no light at all.
A dark temple, like a star that had gone out.
Oh-jin's pace quickened.
-Slam!
“Vega!”
He threw the doors open and stormed inside.
The first thing he saw was a giant wolf with ferociously glowing eyes.
Lyak, who stood motionlessly in the temple as if waiting for Oh-jin, bared its pearly white fangs and spoke.
“Brat… what in the world happened?”
Lyak glared at Oh-jin, its eyes radiating a ferocious killing intent.
Crackle, crackle!
Blue lightning crackled fiercely amidst its silver mane.
“…Lyak.”
“I asked you! What! Happened!”
Crrrack!
Lyak's body transformed into a human's as it stomped its foot violently.
A roar shook the entire temple.
Disappearing in the blink of an eye, Lyak roughly grabbed Oh-jin by the collar.
A blazing blue light from its eyes was fixed on Oh-jin.
“Vega saved me.”
“What?”
Oh-jin calmly recounted what had happened with Cheon Do-yoon.
Being in peril while fighting the King of Owls, Noctua of the Owl constellation using its blessing, and Vega using her Sanctuary to defeat Noctua.
“So Lady Vega….”
Lyak trailed off with a gloomy expression.
“What's Vega's condition now?”
“……”
Lyak turned around, its expression stiff and hard.
“Follow me. It'll be faster if you see for yourself.”
He followed Lyak deeper into the temple.
Walking down a long corridor toward the end of the temple, he saw a door from which a soft silver light emanated.
The light, which should have enveloped the entire temple, was flickering precariously, as if about to go out at any moment.
“…This is.”
“This is where Lady Vega usually resides. Come in.”
Opening the massive door, which seemed to be over twenty meters tall, revealed a cavern filled with silver light.
A space enveloped in silver.
He could see Vega, bound by dozens of chains of light.
The goddess was bound by the chains of light, her body curled up like a chrysalis.
“Vega!”
Oh-jin tried to reach for the chains of light binding Vega, but was stopped by Lyak, who had followed him.
“Touch them carelessly, and even if you are a human free from the constraints of the Law, you won't escape unscathed.”
“…What happened?”
“Her consciousness has been sealed due to the Restriction.”
Sealed.
Oh-jin bit his lip as he looked at Vega, bound by the chains of light.
Bound by the chains, Vega's eyes were closed as if in a deep sleep, showing no reaction at all.
Her corpse-like appearance sent a chill down his spine.
‘She used her power to this extent?’
He could finally grasp the magnitude of the sacrifice Vega had made to protect him.
Until now, even when under a Restriction, she was merely unable to manifest on Earth but could live normally in the Sanctuary, so he had vaguely assumed it would be the same this time.
It was a far too complacent assumption.
“D-Don't tell me she's going to be sealed like this forever?!”
Ha-eun, who also hadn't expected Vega to be in such a state, asked with an urgent expression.
Lyak slowly shook its head.
“It will be released on its own over time.”
“Phew. That's a relief.”
Ha-eun let out a sigh of relief, patting her chest.
“So, how long will it take for the seal to be broken?”
“Fifty years.”
“…What?”
Oh-jin's and Ha-eun's eyes widened.
Lyak pointed to the dozens of chains of light binding Vega and continued.
“It takes exactly one year in Earth time for one of those chains to disappear. Since there are a total of fifty chains binding Lady Vega now, she will regain consciousness after fifty years.”
“……”
Fifty years.
The length of time felt so vast that Oh-jin and Ha-eun could only stand frozen in a daze, unable to react.
“…Fifty years?”
It felt like being hit hard on the back of the head with a hammer.
Although becoming an Awakened had removed the constraint of a limited lifespan, fifty years still felt like an eternity to someone who had lived their entire life as a human.
“W-Wait! Does it normally take this long? S-Shouldn't a North Star Constellation receive a lesser Restriction?!”
Ha-eun demanded.
Lyak nodded, its eyes sharp.
“This is certainly not a typical case.”
“Right? There must have been some mistake or problem for it to take this long, right?”
“No, it's the opposite, lizard woman.”
“…What?”
The opposite?
What does that even mean?
“The Restriction Lady Vega received this time is called the ‘Hundred-Year Chains.’ It is a punishment given only to Constellations who have used a power so great that they wouldn't be surprised to be annihilated for it.”
Hundred-Year Chains.
“…Huh?”
Oh-jin's brow furrowed.
He turned his head and counted the number of chains binding Vega's body.
Just as Lyak had said, there were exactly fifty chains.
“But right now….”
“Yes. This is exactly why I said this case is not typical.”
Lyak let out a deep sigh and approached Vega.
“The chains, which should have numbered one hundred, have been reduced to fifty.”
“The reason?”
“I don't know. There were only fifty chains left from the moment I first discovered Lady Vega sealed.”
“……”
So, the chains of light that should have numbered one hundred had been halved.
“Isn't it because she's a North Star Constellation? The higher a Constellation's rank, the more power they have to withstand the Law's Restrictions, right?”
“That has nothing to do with it. If Lady Vega were not a North Star Constellation, she wouldn't have received the ‘Hundred-Year Chains’ Restriction in the first place; she would have had her soul annihilated.”
So no matter how high a Constellation's rank, the Restriction itself applies equally to all of them.
In that case, just as Lyak said, the fact that the hundred chains of light were reduced to fifty is certainly not ‘typical’.
“……”
Oh-jin's gaze deepened.
In the heavy silence, Ha-eun frowned and exclaimed.
“Whether it's a hundred chains or fifty isn't what's important right now! S-Still, fifty years…!”
Even as a price for breaking the Restriction and using her power, it was too harsh.
“Dammit… If I hadn't been kidnapped like an idiot back then!”
Was she feeling guilty about the incident?
Biting her lip, Ha-eun's eyes welled up with tears, as if she were about to burst out crying at any moment.
Of course, Oh-jin felt the same way.
‘Why fifty chains and not a hundred?’
There would be time later for tears, regrets, and self-blame.
Right now, the priority was to find a way to break the chains of light binding Vega.
‘They wouldn't have been halved for no reason.’
It was a Restriction well-known among the Constellations, enough to be named the ‘Hundred-Year Chains’.
A phenomenon like this couldn't happen without some cause and effect.
‘There must be a reason why the Law's Restriction was reduced.’
Oh-jin's eyes sharpened as he examined the fifty chains binding Vega's body.
‘Lyak said there were only fifty chains from the moment it arrived here.’
In that case.
It meant something had happened between Vega being reverse-summoned to the Sanctuary and Lyak's arrival.
Something that weakened the Law's Restriction.
“…Could it be.”
Oh-jin's eyes widened.
“Do you have some idea, brat?”
Lyak asked, its eyes shining.
Its expression was full of hope that a Regressor might know the answer to this mysterious phenomenon.
Oh-jin turned to Lyak and opened his mouth.
“Lyak. Take Ha-eun and wait outside. There's something I need to check.”
“Understood.”
Lyak turned without another word.
“What is it? Why are we suddenly going out….”
“No more talk, come out, lizard woman.”
“Ugh.”
Ha-eun swallowed a short grunt and slowly nodded.
“Call if you need help.”
Krrrr.
Lyak, who had gone outside, closed the door.
Only Oh-jin and Vega remained in the space filled with silver light.
“……”
Oh-jin approached Vega and slowly reached out his hand toward the chains of light binding her.
Rumble.
A black cloud emerged from his palm and touched the chains of light.
-Fzzzzzzzt!!!
When the cloud of the Black Heaven touched the chains of light, sparks flew with a violent reaction.
But it was only for a moment.
The cloud of the Black Heaven was scattered as if repelled by the haze of light emanating from the chains.
“As I thought.”
If something that could weaken the Law's Restriction had occurred in the short time between Vega's reverse-summoning and Lyak's arrival.
There was only one possibility.
‘Gaecheon.’
The release of the Black Heaven had affected the Law's Restriction.
‘Come to think of it, Vega once mentioned that the Law's Restriction had suddenly weakened.’
It was probably right after I defeated Ashad Khan.
Back then, there were too few clues to determine the cause, so I couldn't reach a proper conclusion.
‘Once might be a coincidence, but a second time can't be.’
The Black Heaven holds the power to weaken the Law's Restriction.
The violent reaction just now when the chains of light and the cloud of the Black Heaven touched was enough to prove the hypothesis.
“The problem is… I can't break these just by using the Black Heaven normally.”
Oh-jin summoned the Black Heaven a few more times and brought it to the chains of light, but each time, the black cloud was scattered by a strong haze of light.
It was the same even when he drew out the Black Heaven with all his might.
In its normal state, the Black Heaven cannot break the chains of light.
‘I have to use Gaecheon to break them.’
But right now, I can't use Gaecheon on my own.
Of course, it might be possible if I absorb Ha-eun's Dragon Eye with the Black Heaven again.
‘But if I do that, there's no telling what other side effects might occur.’
In the worst-case scenario.
Ha-eun's Dragon Eye could disappear completely.
‘If the Dragon Eye disappears, she won't be able to control the Dragon's Heart she just absorbed.’
She would be in danger of falling into Qi Deviation and losing her life.
“…For now, I guess I have no choice but to leave her like this until I can use Gaecheon on my own.”
Oh-jin sighed deeply as he looked at the peacefully sleeping Vega.
The image of her stroking his hair with a gentle smile faintly came to mind.
Grit.
Thick veins bulged on his clenched fist.
He wanted to use Gaecheon right this instant to break the chains of light binding her, but.
‘Endure it.’
For now, I should be satisfied with having found a way to break the seal.
At least, after I've become capable of using Gaecheon on my own.
It would be right to break the chains binding her then.
“I need to raise the level of the Black Heaven quickly.”
The core of Gaecheon is the mana from the dragon vein I absorbed in the last dungeon.
Since the amount of dragon vein mana I can handle increases as the blooming stage of the Black Heaven rises, I need to raise its stage as quickly as possible.
‘I have a way in mind to raise the stage.’
Oh-jin left Vega behind and turned toward the door.
‘First, I need to think of a way to fool Lyak.’
It was obvious.
To break the chains without revealing that he possessed the Black Heaven, he needed to deceive Lyak first.
If he just showed up out of the blue and broke the chains without a word, he would naturally arouse suspicion.
-Creeak.
He opened the massive door and went outside.
“Did you figure anything out, brat?”
Lyak, who had been waiting outside, approached with an anxious expression.
“It's not certain yet, but I might… be able to release the Law's Restriction.”
“I-Is that true!”
Kwang!
Lyak stomped its foot violently as it approached.
Oh-jin turned to the astonished Lyak and asked in a meaningful tone.
“Lyak. Have you ever heard of… a Holy Relic called ‘Adam's Apple’?”
“N-No. I've never heard of it! What is that?!”
I don't know either.
I just made it up.
“It's a Holy Relic that can reduce the Law's Restriction.”
“I-I've never heard of such a Holy Relic existing! Where on earth did you get that information….”
Lyak looked at Oh-jin with an expression of disbelief.
Oh-jin smirked and continued.
“Did you forget who I am, Lyak?”
I'm a Regressor, you fool.