Chapter 244
Chapter 244
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 244
Chapter Title: Interlude - The Left Path
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“Hah, hah!”
He was gasping for breath.
Blood from his torn wounds soaked his clothes, sticky and wet.
“Ugh.”
Oh-jin poured a potion supplied by the Satellite Cult over his injuries.
“Damn it, some over-the-counter cream would work better than this.”
He hadn't expected much from the supplies given to a rank-and-file member with no official title anyway.
Oh-jin crawled across the floor and rummaged through the pockets of a dead cultist whose head had been smashed in by a Valhalla guild member's hammer.
“Still, this bastard’s stuff is a little better.”
After pouring another potion on his wound, Oh-jin leaned against the cave wall and let out a deep sigh.
“Has it already… been half a year?”
Six months had passed since he left Ha-eun’s side to become a follower of the Satellite Cult.
During that time, he couldn't see her face or hear her voice, and an unbearable loneliness weighed him down.
‘Just a little… a little longer.’
Oh-jin touched his left chest.
Thanks to the blessing of the Noctua constellation, his wounds had healed enough for him to move freely.
But the symbol of an Awakened, the ‘Stigma,’ had yet to be engraved on his left chest.
‘The fake Aquarius Stigma I had before vanished during the healing process, too.’
Now, all he felt under his fingertips was smooth skin.
“When I become an Awakened… I’ll come back to you, Ha-eun.”
Leaning against the cave wall, Oh-jin uttered a vow she couldn't possibly hear.
For now, without a Stigma, he was living as nothing more than cannon fodder.
But once he got a Stigma and built up his achievements, he would be able to approach the ‘Lunar Palace,’ the place where the Satellite Cult stored its treasured Sacred Relics.
‘I’ll pull off a heist there and then disappear.’
It was nearly impossible for a mere grunt like him to get near the Lunar Palace, but he had a plan.
‘If I can just fool Cheon Do-yoon… no, the ‘Serpent’ that’s controlling him.’
Hadn't he spent his entire life as a con artist?
He was quite confident in his ability to deceive others.
“Well, I don’t know if she’d even take me back if I shamelessly returned now.”
Oh-jin clenched his fist with a sad smile.
Even after half a year, the memory of that day still surfaced.
The memory of having to leave her side, leaving behind nothing but a single, pathetic line asking for Ha-eun to be taken care of.
“……”
His chest ached as if a sharp knife was carving into it, but he didn't regret his choice that day.
If he went back to that moment, he would surely make the same decision.
‘At the very least… I don’t want to be a hindrance.’
Ha-eun had become a member of the Valhalla Guild and was even chosen as one of its Guardians.
He didn't want to become a ‘dirty speck of dust,’ just as his name implied, in her life that had just begun to shine so brilliantly.
So he left.
Leaving only a one-line letter for Lee Shin-hyeok, asking him to look after Ha-eun.
He vanished from her side without a final goodbye.
“Time to get moving.”
Seeing that his wound had mostly stopped bleeding, Oh-jin slowly pushed himself to his feet.
‘They’ve probably all escaped through the outer passage by now.’
During the skirmish with the Valhalla Guild, he had deliberately leaked information to them that a Satellite Cult Executor was in the inner cavern.
They knew all too well the monstrous power of the Executors, who had been granted strength by the ‘Serpent,’ so they would have immediately retreated toward the outer passage upon hearing the news.
‘There are some forces there, too, but…’
It was a force that Lee Shin-hyeok, Lee Woo-hyeok, and Ha-eun could easily break through.
“Hup.”
Oh-jin staggered toward the inner cavern.
By now, the Satellite Cult’s Executors in the cavern would have taken their target, the ‘Dragon’s Heart,’ and left the dungeon.
‘I’ll just check if there’s anything left to salvage before I go.’
For him, who didn't even have a Stigma yet, even a fragment of the ‘Dragon’s Heart’ would be a godsend.
Oh-jin climbed over the rubble of rocks and reached the inner cavern.
“Whoa.”
Before him was a vast space made of blue crystals.
He couldn't properly sense mana yet, but he could instinctively feel that this space itself was imbued with some incredible energy.
“I might actually find something good here.”
Oh-jin’s eyes lit up as he looked around.
Just then, a strange trace caught his eye.
“…Is it melted?”
He saw black, scorched marks stuck to the floor and walls.
As if they had been seared by intense fire.
Oh-jin followed the marks.
Between the collapsed debris, he saw a clump of red thread.
“This is…”
It wasn’t a clump of thread.
It was hair.
“Huh?”
An eerie chill ran down his spine.
“N-no. She went to the outer passage.”
Pushing away the ominous thought that surfaced in his mind, Oh-jin cleared away the crystal debris.
His breathing quickened.
With each piece of debris he removed, something buried beneath gradually came into view.
Blood-soaked clothes.
And.
A woman with hair redder than blood.
“Uh, uh…?”
A gruesome corpse with its left eyeball gouged out.
Half of her face was gone, but Oh-jin recognized the owner of the corpse all too easily.
“H-Ha-eun…?”
Why.
Why.
Why.
Why. Why. Why. Why. Why. Why. Why. Why. Why. Why. Why. Why. Why. Why. Why. Why. Why. Why. Why. Why. Why. Why. Why. Why. Why. Why. Why. Why. Why. Why. Why. Why. Why. Why. Why. Why. Why. Why. Why. Why. Why. Why. Why. Why. Why. Why. Why. Why. Why. Why. Why. Why. Why. Why. Why. Why. Why. Why. Why. Why. Why. Why. Why. Why. Why.
“Why… are you… here…?”
His breathing grew ragged.
With trembling hands, Oh-jin touched the corpse pinned under the rubble again and again.
“No…”
It couldn't be Ha-eun.
It shouldn't be Ha-eun.
“I… told them the Executor was in the cavern.”
Then Ha-eun shouldn't have come here.
No matter what.
Ha-eun should not have been here.
“I! I told them! I leaked the information! So, so, why…”
If she had tried to come to the inner cavern alone, someone should have stopped her.
He had even set up someone to play that role in his stead.
But.
Why.
“He said… he’d protect you… He said he’d protect you! He promised!”
With trembling hands, Oh-jin pulled Ha-eun’s body into an embrace.
A body that was still warm.
He desperately tried to absorb her fading warmth into himself.
“Ha-eun, Ha-eun, Ha-eun, Ha-eun.”
Strange.
He was so sad.
His heart was in so much pain it felt like it was being torn apart.
But no tears came.
“You’re not dead, right?”
The entire world felt like a giant theater stage.
It was washed in gray, like an old black-and-white film.
The world that had been alive and breathing until now felt so alien.
“Ha, haha. Right? Ha-eun…?”
Yes. In fact, his entire life had been nothing but a play.
The orphanage director who had tormented him so terribly, and Lee Shin-hyeok who had snatched away his hope.
They were all just actors hired for the play.
At the end, they would appear with bright smiles and say, ‘Ta-da! Thank you for watching!’
“Please… please tell me it’s a lie, okay?”
But.
If that was true, why.
Why wouldn't the curtain fall on this damn play?
*Gurgle.*
Just then.
An intense pain originating from his left heart washed over Oh-jin.
“Kugh!”
Along with the pain, the clear sound of a bell rang in his ears.
*T-ring!*
[Heukcheon begins its first transformation!]
[Heukcheon absorbs the Draco Stigma!]
“…Heukcheon?”
Oh-jin’s brow furrowed at the unfamiliar word.
But that was only for a moment.
*Rumble!*
A black cloud shot out from his palm and covered Ha-eun’s left chest.
An energy he had never felt before flowed into his body through the cloud.
The mana of the Draco Stigma, which should have belonged to Ha-eun.
“N…o.”
Oh-jin reached out toward the black cloud that was greedily devouring the Stigma.
The mana he had so desperately yearned for was filling his body, but.
“Don’t… eat it…!”
This belonged to Ha-eun.
It had to be Ha-eun’s.
Otherwise.
“I said don’t eat it… you bastard!”
Oh-jin tried to bat away the black cloud clinging to his left chest.
The cloud, which had scattered like smoke, gathered again in one place and continued to drain Ha-eun’s mana.
“Please… stop! Please!”
He screamed.
He cried out.
But the cloud of Heukcheon devoured Ha-eun’s mana gluttonously, as if it couldn't hear his cries.
“Stop, stop, stop, I said stop, you fucking bastard!!!”
The mana of the Stigma flowed into his body.
With it, the mana remaining in her corpse began to fade away.
The mana-drained corpse grew cold at a rapid pace.
The warmth that remained.
The warmth of her he had so longed for.
Was disappearing.
Growing cold.
Becoming rigid.
*T-ring!*
[Successfully absorbed the Draco Stigma!]
[The Draco Stigma has been set as your representative Stigma.]
*Szzzzzzzle.*
A searing pain, like being branded with a hot iron, burned his left chest.
“…Ah.”
With a trembling hand, Oh-jin touched his left chest.
What his fingertips felt was…
The Draco Stigma that Ha-eun had possessed.
“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!”
The world collapsed.
Crushed, trampled, and pulverized.
*Fwoooosh!*
Flames erupted, engulfing his body.
They were flames he knew all too well.
Beyond the roaring flames, Ha-eun’s face superimposed itself.
“Ha-eun…?”
Oh-jin reached out a trembling hand to touch the flames.
Ha-eun’s face, which had been layered over the fire, scattered and vanished like smoke.
“……”
His eyes lost their light.
With empty eyes, Oh-jin looked down at her cold, lifeless body.
“Hm? What, there’s someone still here?”
Just then.
Someone’s voice reached him.
“Looks like that bastard came here to salvage something, just like us.”
“Ah, isn’t that the guy? You know, that woman among the Guardians. Her little brother.”
“You’re right.”
The voices in his ears felt awkward.
Like clumsy actors reciting lines from a script.
“…Ha, haha.”
A dry laugh escaped him.
Yes.
It was only natural that the voices felt awkward.
“Because this is all… a lie.”
This world was an elaborately crafted stage.
Oh-jin slowly rose to his feet.
*Fwoooosh!*
Flames as hot as a dragon’s breath wrapped around his body.
“What the, didn’t that guy not have a Stigma?”
“Did he salvage a Sacred Relic or something?”
“Heh heh. Perfect.”
The Satellite Cult members approached, their faces twisted into dark smiles.
Oh-jin turned to them and mirrored their dark smile.
“Right.”
If this was all an elaborately crafted play.
“It’s time to bring down the curtain.”
As Oh-jin lifted his head, blue ghost flames ignited in his eyes.
Soon after, horrific screams and the acrid smoke of burning flesh filled the cavern.
This was a story not recorded in the chronicles of the hero who overcame countless trials and tribulations to slay the Cheonma.
The unchosen.
The story of the left path.