Chapter 215
Chapter 215
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 215
Chapter Title: Head of the Snake (8)
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As if it had bottled up the night sky.
A dark cloud, filled with deep blackness, erupted forth.
“Kerrrk?”
The mother beast, which had been charging toward Oh-jin, came to a sudden halt.
It flared its massive nostrils and tilted its head, as if it couldn't comprehend what was happening.
In exchange for its atrophied sight, it possessed a keen sense of smell and hearing that allowed it to perceive its surroundings.
But for some reason…
“Kerrrk! Kerk! Krrrrrrk!”
It couldn't smell anything.
It couldn't hear anything.
Not the scent of its enemy, made of flesh and blood. Not the sound of footsteps scrambling to escape.
It was as if a switch had been flipped, cutting off all its senses. Nothing could be felt.
Nothing, nothing, nothing.
“What’s wrong?”
*CRUNCH!*
Just then, a loud noise echoed.
It wasn't an external sound.
The sound came from within its own body.
It was the sound of a long spear piercing through its flesh and impaling the crown of its head.
“I asked if you thought so too.”
*Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzt!*
“Kieeeeeeeeeeeek!”
The mother beast’s body contorted as if it were having a seizure.
It wasn’t because of the excruciating pain.
Quite the opposite.
The beast let out a horrifying shriek, terrified by the fact that it felt no sensation even as its body was being destroyed.
*RUUUUMBLE!*
Thousands, tens of thousands of tentacles thrashed wildly around it.
Oh-jin, whose body was now half-turned into a dark cloud, was struck by a blindly swinging tentacle and sent flying backward.
*CRASH!*
With a heavy boom, the dark cloud that formed his body rippled violently.
“Ah, ugh.”
Oh-jin raised the hand that hadn't turned into a cloud and clutched his head.
Like butter melting in a hot pan.
He could feel his consciousness fading.
‘Focus.’
Before his consciousness completely dissolved into the clouds of Black Heaven.
He had to kill the mother beast.
“Hah.”
Exhaling a low breath, he lightly kicked off the ground.
He hadn’t even used Lightning Step, yet his body floated into the air on its own.
As if he had become a real cloud.
Freely drifting through the air, Oh-jin looked down at the mother beast writhing from above.
‘The sensory deprivation seems to have worked to some extent.’
Using Opening the Heavens caused all enemies within a certain radius to lose their ‘senses’.
Given the monster’s immense size, it didn't seem to have completely blocked all its senses.
But seeing it shriek and rampage, it was safe to assume the sensory deprivation had been somewhat successful.
However.
‘It’s too hard to get close.’
The tentacles, swinging about indiscriminately, made it difficult to approach the mother beast’s body.
“Ugh, ah. Guh!”
Normally, he could have dodged his way through them.
But in his current state, desperately clinging to a consciousness that was flickering like a dying light, even moving his body properly was a struggle.
‘If I can draw its attacks toward the parts that have turned into clouds.’
After using Opening the Heavens, nearly half his body had transformed into a dark cloud.
The parts that had become a cloud seemed impervious to physical force, allowing attacks to pass right through them.
“Hah, hah. I can do it.”
The areas most transformed into a cloud were his right chest and arm.
The rest of his body hadn't changed completely, but rather in patches like stains on clothing, making it difficult for attacks to pass through.
“Hnngh!”
He took a deep breath and flew toward the mother beast.
The dark clouds that had settled around him like a mist followed, blanketing the beast’s body.
Within the darkness shrouded by the clouds, a tentacle, swinging erratically, shot toward him.
‘The right side.’
*SWOOSH!*
A grotesque tentacle lunged for his right side.
He twisted his body, taking the blow with the part that had turned into a black cloud.
The tentacle, powerful enough to shatter towering rock formations, passed straight through the black cloud.
“That’s it.”
Oh-jin smirked and moved closer to the mother beast.
On the beast’s head, which only had a large nose and a hideous mouth torn up to its temples, the spear Oh-jin had driven in earlier was still embedded.
Landing on its head, dodging the tentacles, Oh-jin gripped the jet-black spear.
‘Charge.’
*Zzt! Zzzzt!*
He condensed lightning within the obsidian spear.
Once, twice, three times.
With each charge, the spear trembled as if crying out in agony.
‘Not yet.’
It felt like the spear would shatter at any moment, but this wasn't enough to bring down a beast hundreds of meters in size.
‘Charge, charge, charge.’
After the sixth charge, as he reached the seventh.
*Crack! Craaack!*
A faint crack appeared on the spear shaft.
Oh-jin thrust the spear he was holding deeper into the crown of the mother beast’s head and unleashed the condensed lightning.
“Discharge.”
*KRRRRRRRA-KABOOOOOM!!*
A torrent of black lightning struck the mother beast’s head.
“Kieeeeeeeeeeeek!”
A horrifying scream pierced through his fading consciousness.
But even after unleashing such a full-power attack.
“Hah, hah… Dammit.”
Despite having driven a spear directly into its body and channeling lightning inside it, the mother beast wasn't dead. Instead, it began to writhe even more violently.
‘Just how tough is it?’
Oh-jin bit his lip, his expression anxious.
He had used his most powerful attack, aside from Lightning Body, and still couldn't kill the mother beast.
‘I can’t use Lightning Body right now.’
How could he possibly use Lightning Body when he was desperately clinging to a thread of consciousness that felt like it would snap at any moment?
“Hah, hah. Ah, ugh.”
His consciousness was melting into the black clouds.
A few memories surfaced, only to dissolve and vanish into the darkness.
‘No.’
There was no time.
“Hoo.”
Oh-jin let out a low breath and plunged his cloud-transformed arm into the wound on the mother beast’s head, which had been torn open by the spear.
Like dropping a black ink droplet into clear water.
The clouds of Black Heaven ferociously burrowed into the mother beast’s body.
‘If I can’t kill it with physical attacks.’
Then he would leave nothing behind.
Until its very soul withered and crumbled to dust.
He would just have to devour it.
*GUUUURGLE!*
The energy of Black Heaven that had penetrated the mother beast’s body began to greedily consume its mana.
‘So this is… the soul of a Constellation.’
A part of the Constellation's soul, which had been dissolved within the holy spirit, was absorbed by Black Heaven and flowed into Oh-jin’s body.
A thrill of ecstasy, a power so immense he had never tasted before, washed over him, making every cell in his body tremble with elation.
‘More, more, more!’
Oh-jin’s lips twisted into a grin as he greedily absorbed the mother beast’s mana.
“Ahh.”
Who would have thought that devouring the soul of a Constellation could be this pleasurable?
“Ha, hahaha. Hahahahaha!”
A laugh burst out of him, driven by the overwhelming pleasure.
If just a fragment of an unknown Constellation’s soul could bring this much ecstasy.
‘I wonder.’
If he were to devour Vega whole.
How enjoyable would that be?
How blissful would that be?
How, how, how, how, how—
“The hell…!”
Oh-jin violently yanked his right arm out of the beast’s head.
He stopped absorbing its mana and kicked off from the top of the mother beast’s head.
*THUD!*
Oh-jin’s body fell from a height of several hundred meters, rolling across the ground with a heavy impact.
“Hah, hah, hah!”
Oh-jin gasped for breath and hurriedly closed the gate of Black Heaven.
His body, which had been nearly half-transformed into a black cloud, gradually began to return to its original form.
“Fuck, fuck!”
He let out a stream of curses at the disgusting thoughts that had just filled his mind.
-Ding!
[You have absorbed a part of the soul of the Constellation of the Toad, ‘Butenin’.]
[The power of Black Heaven has been strengthened, and you have acquired the new trait ‘Vaporization’.]
[You have met some of the conditions required for the release of ‘Opening the Heavens (開天)’.]
A series of blue messages appeared before his eyes.
But right now, Oh-jin had no time to leisurely read them.
“Hah, hah.”
Cold sweat ran down his back.
Oh-jin sat slumped on the ground, covering his face with his now-normal right hand.
He desperately suppressed the seething desire and thirst, trying to reclaim the flickering thread of his consciousness.
“Hoo.”
After barely managing to calm the rampaging energy of Black Heaven, Oh-jin let out a low breath and pushed himself to his feet.
“Kerrrrrrrrrrrrk!”
*Thump! Thump! Thud!*
The mother beast opened its widely torn mouth and charged toward Oh-jin.
“You’re insane…!”
Oh-jin stared at the mother beast, his eyes wide with shock.
Was it because he had stopped absorbing it midway?
Despite being a complete wreck, the mother beast was still breathing.
‘Damn it all!’
He knew he had to get away quickly.
But still suffering from the aftereffects of using Opening the Heavens, his legs wouldn't move.
“Kerararararak!”
The mother beast, hundreds of meters long, charged toward Oh-jin like a tank.
Just as its massive body was about to crush him.
“You are a noisy child.”
*Swish.*
A jet-black dress brushed against the ground.
A slender woman with platinum blonde hair stepped in front of the mother beast.
“Kerk.”
The beast, which had been charging with its mouth agape, came to an abrupt halt.
The woman smiled faintly at the beast, which stood frozen and trembling.
“That’s right. Good boy, good boy.”
*Pat, pat.*
She reached out a slender hand and stroked the motionless mother beast.
“Kerk, kerrrk, kerk.”
The mother beast stood rooted to the spot, its body quivering as if having a seizure.
Though its face consisted only of a nose and a mouth.
For some reason, to Oh-jin’s eyes, the mother beast’s face looked terrified.
“But the sin you have committed is too great to be forgiven.”
A chilling killing intent formed in the woman’s green eyes.
She extended her index finger and gave the mother beast’s body a very light tap.
“Die.”
As her chilling command echoed.
“Kerrrrrrrrk!”
The mother beast began to mutilate itself frantically.
It shoved its long tentacles into its own mouth to mash its innards and drove the sharp tips of its legs into its own head to scramble its brain.
It was a gruesome sight, like a scene from a horror movie.
Oh-jin swallowed hard and turned to the platinum-blonde woman who had appeared so suddenly.
Was she in her mid-twenties?
Despite her alluring appearance, her body was so frail it looked as though it would break if touched incorrectly.
However.
‘Crazy.’
The aura she exuded.
It was more powerful than any Awakened he had ever met.
‘I can never win against this.’
Had there ever been a being that exuded such an absurd level of pressure?
Oh-jin clenched his fist, his hand trembling involuntarily, and looked at the woman.
“Ah, ahhh!”
The woman looked at Oh-jin and let out a cry of elation.
Without hesitation, she knelt on the dusty ground, spreading her arms wide like a zealot praising their god.
“Finally, finally, I have finally found you!”
She shouted in a fanatical voice.
“My god, my savior, my master!”
She looked up at Oh-jin with a radiant smile.
“Your Heavenly Demon’s humble servant, Cassia, greets you.”
The woman, who had introduced herself as Cassia, bowed her head deeply toward Oh-jin.
Oh-jin’s eyes wavered.
‘Heavenly Demon? She’s calling me Heavenly Demon? What the hell is this crazy situation?’
He didn’t know why she was calling him the Heavenly Demon.
But as far as he knew, there was only one woman who followed the Heavenly Demon with such fanaticism.
‘Don’t tell me… the Queen of Ophiuchus?’
A chill ran down Oh-jin’s spine.
‘Fuck, fuck, fuuuuuuck!’
A torrent of curses filled his head.
Talk about jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire.
First the holy spirit, and now the Queen of Ophiuchus?
“Ah, Lord Heavenly Demon. Lord Heavenly Demon. Lord Heavenly Demon. Lord Heavenly Demon.”
Cassia looked up at Oh-jin with pleading eyes.
“I have wanted to see you… so, so desperately.”
“……”
Oh-jin stared down at the kneeling Cassia and kept his mouth shut.
She seemed to be waiting for his response, her hands politely clasped as she looked up at him.
“Hoo.”
Oh-jin let out a low breath and swept his hair back.
He looked down at Cassia with cold eyes and spoke in a low voice.
“You’re late.”
His voice was as cold as frost.
“How long did you intend to keep me waiting?”
As he narrowed his eyes as if looking at something pathetic.
“Ah! I-I apologize, my god!”
*THUD!*
Cassia slammed her head violently against the ground, her body trembling.
Oh-jin looked down at Cassia, whose head was pressed to the ground, and swallowed hard.
‘I’m so fucked.’
What do I do now?