Chapter 263
Chapter 263
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 263
Chapter Title: Snowfield (3)
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*Rumble!*
A deafening roar echoed once more as Isabella and Cassia clashed.
“Damn it!”
Oh-jin bit his lip, his expression anxious.
He wanted to get to Isabella’s side somehow, but his body was defying his will, moving toward the shadow wall.
His unwilling body turned its back on her and headed for the spot where she had been breaking the shadow wall just moments before.
The distance was about 200 meters.
Thanks to the vastness of the shadow dome, he was able to escape the catastrophic aftermath of the battle.
“Ugh, ah.”
As he tried to force his disobedient body to turn, blood burst anew from his right arm, which had been staunched with a potion.
While his mind was momentarily distracted by the pain, Oh-jin’s body arrived at the location Isabella had mentioned.
A small crack carved into the shadow wall came into view.
It was just a small gap, barely big enough for a head to fit through, but with a little more force, it could surely be widened enough for a person to escape.
*Crackle!*
Blue flames erupted on the knife in his hand.
He pushed the knife into the small crack and pulled it back and forth, like sawing through hard wood with a saw. He could see the gap slowly widening.
“Ugh!”
*Grit.*
He clenched his teeth, trying to resist the command, but his body, like a puppet on strings, continued to widen the opening on its own.
*‘Stop.’*
Was she too preoccupied fighting Isabella to pay attention to him?
The shadow wall, which had seemed impenetrable, was parting faster than he expected.
Oh-jin glanced down at the hand holding the knife with anxious eyes.
Even now, the knife, wreathed in blue lightning, was steadily widening a gap for Oh-jin to escape.
“Aaaah!”
Just then.
Isabella’s scream reached him.
Turning his eyes—the only part of him he could still control—he saw Isabella collapsed on the ground.
She must have been hit by a major attack, as a chunk of flesh the size of two fists had been torn from her side.
Mixed with the red blood, a portion of her intestines was protruding.
“Isabella!”
He called out to her urgently, but it was no use.
His body, controlled by the ‘command,’ pushed its upper half through the widened gap.
“Damn it!”
As he exited the dome made of shadows, the refreshing night air brushed against his cheek.
His body was slipping out of the shadow dome like a chick hatching from an egg.
“Stop!”
He shouted desperately, but his body faithfully followed Isabella’s command and began to flee as far as possible from the shadow dome.
“I said stop, you fucker!”
The background blurred past him.
Oh-jin bit his lip and focused his mind on the left side of his chest.
*‘If it’s Black Heaven.’*
The thought that it might be able to defy even her command crossed his mind.
“Ugh!”
*Rumble!*
A black cloud began to seep out from the left side of his chest.
As the energy of Black Heaven spread throughout his body, he could feel his rapidly running form gradually slow down.
But that was all.
*‘My body won’t move properly.’*
He could resist the command, but he couldn’t completely ignore it and move his body as he wished.
*‘The only way to draw out more of Black Heaven’s power here is…’*
Oh-jin’s expression hardened.
One way.
There was still one way.
“…But.”
But.
But.
But.
He swallowed the words that wouldn't come.
He looked down at the left side of his chest with trembling eyes.
*‘If I open the gate.’*
It will be erased again.
I’ll forget again.
The joyful, happy, sad, painful, precious memories.
The footprints of the life he had walked.
“…I don’t want to.”
His body trembled violently.
He curled up like a baby and let out a frightened sound.
It was scary.
Unbearably, insufferably so.
The thought that Cassia wouldn't kill her own sister, no matter what, crossed his mind.
Yes.
That must be it.
Even if her consciousness was controlled by the Heavenly Demon and she had lost her mind, she wouldn’t kill her only blood relative, would she?
*‘She stopped her attack before, too.’*
The image of Cassia clutching her head and writhing in agony came to mind.
Even while being controlled by the Heavenly Demon, her consciousness hadn’t completely vanished.
It was twinkling like a star hidden beyond the dark clouds.
So it would be fine.
So there would be no problem.
Even if he ran away like this.
None at all.
“…Ha.”
A hollow laugh escaped Oh-jin’s lips.
Covering his face with his one remaining hand, he let out a chuckle.
“What a fucking idiot.”
How ridiculous was this?
How pathetic was this?
He was thinking of leaving Isabella to die in a deathtrap, just because he was afraid of losing his memories?
—*I don’t want to let go of either.*
He knew it was selfish.
He knew it was shameless.
It was the greed of a child who insisted on eating a handful of candy even if it meant all his teeth would rot and fall out.
But.
—*For now… just knowing your heart is enough for me.*
There was a woman who had smiled and said it was okay, even to such a childish tantrum.
There was a woman who had given him a radiant smile, as if she were truly happy.
If that was the case.
“I have to go.”
It was fine if he forgot.
It didn't matter if it was erased.
Just as Vega had said that day.
Closing your eyes didn't make the world disappear.
Oh-jin turned his body toward the shadow dome.
Placing a hand on the left side of his chest, he softly chanted an incantation.
***
“Hah, hah!”
A searing pain.
Isabella pressed a hand against her side, trying to keep her intestines from spilling out, and gasped for breath.
Before her stood Cassia, looking down at her with cold, dead eyes.
Her pupils were hollow, as if devoid of all emotion.
The black gem embedded in her forehead was like a seed that had taken root in the ground, consuming her consciousness.
“…Sister.”
Isabella bit her lip and looked up at Cassia.
Those icy eyes turned toward her.
“What is it?”
Her voice was hazy, as if she had just woken from a deep sleep.
Tears welled in Isabella’s eyes.
Her sister’s voice, so cold it sent a chill down her spine, felt as unfamiliar as a stranger’s.
“Snap out of it… Sister.”
“Snap out of it?”
Cassia smiled faintly and stomped hard on Isabella’s torn-open side.
“Aargh!”
A scream of agony echoed through the air.
“I’m perfectly fine right now, you see?”
Flicking her long, snake-like tongue, she spread her arms wide.
Her black dress fluttered as she spun around as if dancing.
“Ah, my beloved Bella. My cute little sister.”
Her voice rang out like a song.
“Did you know? How much I hated you.”
“What… what are you talking about, Sister?”
“Heehee. So my dear Bella really didn’t know?”
Cassia burst into laughter, then crouched down and reached a hand toward the fallen Isabella’s cheek.
“Every time I saw your bright smile, I thought to myself.”
Sitting in a wheelchair.
The image of Isabella, running around with an innocent smile in front of her as she faced her impending death.
“Why me?”
It was as if all the blessings that should have been hers had been given to her sister instead.
From a young age, Isabella had displayed extraordinary talent.
She breezed through the rigorous curriculum for gifted children and was hailed as a once-in-a-century genius in music and art.
And what about sports?
She had even won an international fencing competition, a sport she had only taken up for health reasons.
Genius.
The word felt like it existed solely for Isabella.
“Countless times, tens of times, hundreds of times, I wondered.”
If Isabella was the brightly shining sun.
She was the shadow cast by its light.
The brighter Isabella shone, the darker her shadow became.
Whenever that bright smile, that innocent goodwill, was directed at her, she felt a despair as if the ugly emotions festering in her heart were being dragged out and exposed under the sunlight.
“Someone like you…”
Someone like me.
“It would have been better if you were never born.”
Cassia’s voice was so fragile it sounded as if it might shatter at any moment.
“……”
Isabella looked at Cassia with sad eyes.
She hadn’t known.
No, it would be more accurate to say she hadn't even cared.
She had laughed and chattered and run around in front of Cassia, who was bound to a wheelchair by an incurable disease.
She had thought it was okay.
She had thought it was no problem.
She had thought that because her sister was kind, she wouldn’t mind.
“I’m sorry, Sister.”
Her chest ached as if being carved by a sharp knife.
Her thoughtlessness, her childish happiness.
How much despair must it have brought Cassia?
Being young was an excuse.
She hadn’t been so young or foolish that she couldn’t understand human emotions.
“There’s no need to apologize, you know?”
Cassia’s smile deepened as she slowly raised her staff.
“All my wishes have already come true.”
In the blizzard-swept, pure-white snowfield.
There was someone who had plucked a star from the night sky and gifted it to her as she was freezing to death.
There was someone who had approached her first, when she had nothing, when she had been cast aside like a losing ticket from a lottery.
It wasn't painful anymore.
She wasn't lonely anymore.
As long as she followed His words and His will.
“I… won’t be abandoned anymore.”
Hollow, emerald eyes turned to Isabella.
Cassia brought down the staff she had raised high.
This was the end.
Now, she could finally escape from the shadow cast by the sun.
Yes.
If only Isabella disappeared…
“……”
Once again.
Cassia’s arm stopped.
It was a brief moment, less than a second.
But that short hesitation changed her fate.
—*KABOOOOOOOM!*
A violent explosion roared.
The dome made of shadows was viciously torn apart as a black cloud surged in.
“What…?!”
Cassia stumbled backward, her face a mask of shock.
A black cloud that rushed in like a tidal wave.
From within it, Oh-jin walked out.
“Oh-jin…?”
Isabella’s eyes widened as she looked at Oh-jin, nearly half of his body now transformed into a black cloud.
The black cloud, spreading like a mist, coiled around Isabella’s body.
“Ugh! Th-this is…”
“Stay still.”
The black cloud surrounding Isabella’s body brought her to Oh-jin’s side.
Oh-jin looked down at the wound on Isabella’s side and frowned.
“Do you have any potions left?”
“I-I have one.”
“Give it to me.”
Oh-jin took the potion from her handbag and poured it over the wound.
As the pain subsided and her mind cleared, Isabella looked at Oh-jin with an expression of disbelief.
“H-how are you here, Oh-jin? And your appearance…”
She was sure she had ‘commanded’ him to run away.
“I’ll explain later.”
Now that he had shown her his use of Opening the Heavens, he would need to explain anyway.
“First, let’s finish what we need to do.”
Slowly rising to his feet, Oh-jin turned his eyes, burning with blue will-o’-the-wisps, toward Cassia.